Over My Dead Body
by Reachabledreamz
Summary: Dolph and AJ were always a strong couple. No matter what, through thick and thin, they would always come out even stronger than they were before. But what happens when drama, exes, and lies, and hurt come into their relationship?. Will their love last? Follow them through their lives, and learn the true meaning of Love and War.
1. Take Me Away

She loved him. Period. End of story. They had been dating for a while and it had come to the point in their relationship where they should have said those three words to each other….but they hadn't.

Dolph was a cocky, arrogant, and egotistical when it came to his character on t.v., but behind closed doors, he was different. He was the opposite of what everyone thought of him and that was ok with AJ. What bothered her was how private he was. She wasn't used to privacy, especially considering their jobs. They were on tv and at house shows most of the year so the public eye was always on them. But when they crossed back behind those curtains, it was as though everything changed, as though, he was just … different.

AJ sat in his locker room waiting for him to come back. He had been out hanging with some other guy wrestlers. As she sat there, she realized that she shouldn't sit there bored and so she found interest in going through his things. She was his girlfriend, so she was allowed to do this type of stuff right?

Ugh. She hated this arena. It was so small compared to the rest, meaning, the locker rooms were smaller and less stuff to rummage through. After a while she made her way to the actual locker and got his bag out. Going through it, she found everything she expected, different trunks because he couldn't decide, his boots, and other things. All of a sudden, BOOM, there it was. His white iphone. Should she go through it? Was that prying? Was that too much? Was she over stepping her boundaries? All these question rambled through her head as the phone sat there in her lap. She then realized that she had never been on Dolph's phone on her own. They always watched videos together on there, and she saw funny texts, but she never picked up his phone to just be curious. It kind of bothered her. This fueled her to get the nerve to pick up the phone. Breathe AJ. Breathe. She grabbed it and unlocked the screen. Uh-Oh, password. Hmmm. Was it her birthday? No. Was it her name? No. It was one of those word passwords, so it wasn't a simple 1234.

"Come on AJ, if you were Dolph what would you put as your password?" AJ thought outloud.

Suddenly it came to her. Dolph always mentioned a day he will never forget is the day they started dating. It was such a long, drown out process for them to start dating and they finally stopped being stubborn and got together. It was actually almost their 6 month anniversary. AJ wanted it to be special. She'd never been in a relationship this long, and it never was this real. It never was … real love. This with him is, and she wasn't going to take that lightly.

She slowly typed in the word "spidermonkey". Spidermonkey was the nickname Dolph gave her for some odd reason. She loved it though and she never complained about the odd name. It was his nickname for her and she was happy with it.

As soon as she clicked the "go" button, it unlocked and she saw all his apps. Woah. Temple Run, his favorite game on long road trips. WWE app, surprise surprise. Sports apps, eh, more games, boring, twitter, she looked at that all the time, Netflix, not in the mood for a movie. Dolph's phone was getting boring and not worth this stress she put into guessing his password. Messages, alright, lets try that out she thought.

The last person he had been texting was her. She was under "Babe" with a lot of emojis. He was so cute when it came to her. She scrolled and found a familiar name. A name she didn't want to see in his phone. A name that she had heard before and she hated it. Nikki. As in Nikki Bella. Dolph's ex-girlfriend. Her blood started to boil. What was he doing talking to her? She quickly clicked on the name, and went to the top of the messages and read down. She was FLIRTING with him through text message and he didn't address it. All his responses sounded angry, and not once did he mention her. He said " I have someone better in my life now." AJ knew what that meant, but he didn't mention her name. She was offended. She didn't even want to read the rest of the conversation. But, curiosity killed the cat, and she read the rest.

By the time she was done, she had tears streaming down her face. She didn't know what to think of this conversation. Had he been straight forward with Nikki and told her about his new relationship? Yes. Was he flirting back? No. So what was the matter? That problem was he talking to her and didn't tell her about. Just as she had come back out of the bathroom, from wiping her tears and washing her face, Dolph had come in, laughing with Big E.

"Hey babe, you don't mind E in here with us, right?" Dolph asked as E came through the door laughing as well.

"Oh. No, of course not." AJ said as she grabbed the end of her sleeves and sat down on the couch.

"Are you ok?" He asked knowing something was wrong with his girlfriend.

"Yea, why would something be wrong with me?" She asked as though trying to convince herself more that him.

"Hey, E, can you give us a second, I want to talk to AJ real quick."

"Actually, I need to get going anyway, catering is about to close, and I need food before heading to the hotel. I'll just see you guys tomorrow for Smackdown." Big E said in a rush because he forgot about catering and their legendary sausages he loved.

"Alright man, see you tomorrow." Dolph said. Once the door clicked shut, he realized AJ had stood up off the couch and was by his locker with her back to him. "Babe, what's wrong? When I left you were fine, what happened? Did Vickie come in here?"

AJ knew why he asked was Vickie was in here. Vickie despised AJ, even before they started dating, and when they did start dating, it was the icing on top of a huge Hate Cake Vickie had for AJ.

"Nothing's wrong." She said with her back still turned to him in no more than a whisper.

Dolph walked over to her and touched her arm. In a quick flash, she turned around with his phone in her hands and through it on the ground. Dolph didn't know what to go for first, his crying girlfriend or his 500 dollar phone. After little thought, he quickly hugged AJ only to be pushed away.

"So you've been talking to Nikki. I saw the texts, I saw her flirting, I saw the anger, I saw everything. The only thing I don't see is why you didn't tell me." She said angry.

"Babe, I wanted -" Dolph started but couldn't finish.

"Don't 'babe' me! Its plain and simple. You didn't tell me, and from what I see, you weren't going to tell me!" AJ was angry. "You know what? Its not worth arguing with you about. Ive been dumped for both of the Bella Twins before and I'm not going to let it happen again. So tell me Dolph, is she who you want to be with? I need to know now, so I can go crazy chick on you now and not later. I need to know NOW!"

Dolph didn't know what to say. He stood there, it was silent beside AJ's heavy breathing from her rant. This is not how he wanted to end a night after winning to Kofi Kingston. He had a match for Wrestlemania now, that he needed to start getting excited and prepared for, and here he was having an argument with his girlfriend.

"SO WHAT IS IT DOLPH?" AJ yelled at him. She wanted her answer and she wanted it now.

All of a sudden she felt small kisses on her cheek. What? What was this? But the sight on Dolph standing in front of her with his piercing blue eyes hadn't left her mind.

Slowly she heard his voice, "Babe, wake up … babe." She slowly opened her eyes. It was just a dream. It felt so real. She felt him. His arms around her, duh, she realized that was them laying in bed sleep together. Wow. That was too real for her liking.

"Hm?" AJ finally opened both eyes. Once she was fully aware of her surroundings, she saw a beautiful blonde man laying beside her, calling her name.

"Finally you're awake! I have something important to tell you." Dolph said and smiled. Which in turn made her smile.

"What is it Ziggy?"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" He screamed. Kind of scaring her. She wasn't ready for her ears to be blown out at…7:41 in morning. 7:41 IN THE MORNING?! Was he serious? This was a day they didn't have to wake up until at least 10, and he was waking her up EARLY?!

"Babe, you didn't have to wake me up early to tell me. You know I'm not big on birthdays." AJ said serious but trying to sound grateful at the same time.

"Well too bad. This is your 26th birthday, and I'm going to have the pleasure of saying that I made it the best birthday ever. Plus, I'm going to make sure after this birthday, you're going to like birthdays." He still was smiling but it slowly faded when he saw she wasn't reciprocating the smile.

"Come on! Be happy! Its you're birthday!" He said trying to cheer her up.

"I'm telling you, you're going to be very disappointed when you finally realize that I'm not the 'birthday party' kind of girl" AJ said, still very serious and cautiously as though really warning him.

"Ok, look, there are some rules we're going to establish for today ok?" AJ squinted her eyes in suspicion, but slowly nodded her head for him to go on.

"Alright, rule one, you cannot ask any questions. Rule two; you will not mention anyone other than me and you, no one from the past, nobody but me and you. Today is your day and you're spending it with me, so let's enjoy that." He laughed at that.

They rarely got alone time because of their schedules. Sure, they traveled together, and yes, they always stayed in the same hotel room, but that's basically it. Because of their recent on-screen relationship occasionally they got a few days off on the same day, and they took advantage of all of them.

"I'm just saying -" AJ started.

"Nope!" He said while covering her mouth with his hand. "You will not spoil this day for yourself before it has even begun."

She sighed. He was persistent. He wasn't going to stop trying his best to make sure this was the best birthday she had ever had. She couldn't be mad though; he cared about her a lot, and wanted to make her happy. She smiled at the thought, which in return made him smile again.

"That's my girl. Today is going to be great and you don't even understand how much I've planned this out. I literally know every step we're going to take today." Dolph was proud of himself. For the last couple of months he had been planning what they were going to do and how they were going to do it. This was going to be special, and she was GOING to love it whether she liked it or not.

"Ok, fine. I will abide by all your little rules for today. But just for today, after that, I'm back in charge." She said with a wink and a smile. She loved messing around with him. It was so natural and actually fun. She didn't feel like she had to stand out, sometimes the silence and sometimes the laughter just came natural. Their relationship was just … natural.

"Oh really? Who said you were ever in charge ?" He said slowly sliding closer to her.

"Ummm I think everyone knows I'm in charge Ziggy." She said aware of him getting closer to her.

"I don't think anyone in charge would call me Ziggy. And furthermore I don't think anyone would take you that seriously if they heard you call me that." Dolph had that part of him where he wanted to one-up you in any argument. AJ was like that too, so it was always fun to have small battles with each other. Although, it never ended how a normal argument ended. They always ended up making out because someone always gave up and said something cute.

"Oh look at you, acting all smart with your big words. And you actually used them write in the sentence. Baby, your vocabulary is slowly but surely maturing off of its usual 6th grade level." Now things were heating up and that's when it got fun. The play insults were what made the argument the best.

"Awwe, says the girl who often says she doesn't look a day over the age of 10."

AJ was silent and had her head down as though her feelings were hurt. Which caught Dolph off guard, and he starting feeling bad. " Babe, I didn't mean it I was just -"

AJ had the perfect counter for that one, but it might actually be offensive, but she'll make it up to him later

"Oh, no, its fine, I was just thinking about something." She said still with her head down still acting hurt.

"What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing, just you know … 18 seconds." AJ said and quickly lifting her head back up to see his reaction. And what she saw was priceless. Her boyfriend was laying there with his mouth hung open.

"We both know that's not true!" He said offended.

"Ziggy calm down, I was joking."

"I was made fun of by a Goat-Boy, and then I'm challenged by him and his creepy sidekick, and now my girlfriend is joking around about it." Dolph wasn't angry. Or offended because he knew it wasn't true. AJ of all people knew that wasn't true. He didn't even know what he was saying. He got out of bed, not knowing what to do with himself. They were in their hotel room and it got quiet for a few moments.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of you, I was just joking around." AJ said getting out of bed and walking over to the window where he was. He didn't respond right away, so she thought he was really mad at her. She came up behind him wrapped her arms around him, her hands landing on his bare stomach.

"Wrestlemania," is all he said. "I have a match at Wrestlemania."

"Yes you do, and you're going to win and be the new Tag Team Champions with E." AJ loved the thought, she had planned it to be technical. She wanted this for him, but she wasn't sure he was 100% at wanting it to.

Dolph gave her a half smile as he turned around with her still hugging him. He knew this was her doing and that he couldn't thank her enough. What she had to do to get it, he didn't agree with, but in the end, she got him a Wrestlemania match. What more has he ever wanted?

"What time does all my birthday goodness start?" AJ asked changing the subject completely.

"Oh, now you want your birthday goodness? I thought you weren't 'into' birthdays?" He said using air quotes to emphasis the word 'into'.

"Well I was told by a very handsome man that this was going to be the best birthday ever, and he has a really big day planned." She said with a smile.

"And who is this handsome man you speak of?" Dolph said with a smirk. He obviously knew who it was but a little ego boost along the way wouldn't hurt.

"Oh I don't know. He's a wrestler," she started and saw the smirk on his face turn into an actual smile. "and he's about six feet tall, with really nice hair, and has awesome abs."

"Hmm he sounds really hot." Dolph said as he went over to his suitcase.

"Oh he is," she said turning and walking towards the couch between his suitcase and the bathroom. "You know what's also hot?"

"What babe?" he asked still digging through his suitcase trying to find whatever it was.

"Showers."

Dolph's head shot up. He looked straight at her and realized that the shower was running and she was standing there, looking at him … smirking. Oh no. He gulped.

AJ tilted her head the way she knew he loved. "Long …. Hot … Showers."

Dolph raised his eyebrows and in a flash stopped what he was doing.

He gulped one last time, and made up his mind about his next move. He rushed over to her and grabbed her waist lifting her up and running straight into the bathroom, slamming the door. AJ giggled, knowing that's what he was going to do, and as he did so she said "It's only 8 o'clock in the morning and you've made this the best birthday ever."


	2. Free Yourself

He was perfect. She could honestly say she was enjoying this birthday only because he was there and the things he was doing for her. After they had finally left the hotel room at about 11, they started walking around to the local shops. He literally bought her everything she pointed out or laid eyes on. She had to stop him from buying her an ugly sweater she was looking at.

It was her 26th birthday and her real birthday wish was for someone to finally love her, and he did. Shopping was a blast and it eventually made them hungry. That's when Dolph's real plans started getting put into play. Earlier he saw her look at a casual dress that he knew she liked. He bought it without her noticing and put it into a bag along with other accessories he stole from her suitcase.

"Ok babe, this is where you prove how much you trust me." he said out of the blue as they were walking down the street.

"What are you talking about?" AJ asked confused.

"Close your eyes." Dolph was smiling like a little kid at a candy store and she was kind of creped out by it. He obviously has a surprise, but why did she need to prove her trust? She promised not to ask a lot of questions, so she just closed her eyes. A few seconds later she felt something covering her eyes. Oh no. It was a blindfold. This was not going to be good. She hated surprises and to top it off she couldn't even see it.

"Doooooolllppphhhh," she whined at him after he had tied it and made sure she couldn't see. "You know I hate surprises! Why would do this to me?"

"I wanted to see you cutely blindfolded. Plus, I get to touch you without you seeing me first." Dolph still with a grin on his face even though he knew she couldn't see it.

AJ made a face, but he didn't care. He knew she was going to love the surprise. They started walking, listening to the cars driving by, and trying to get AJ to the surprise as quick as possible. Was AJ the best person when it came to balance? No. She was terrible at it actually. She was a total klutz and he knew it, which made this whole blindfold thing even more fun for him.

"Alright we're here," he said to her finally. "So, I'm going to keep the blindfolded and you need to change into some different clothes."

"How on Earth am I supposed to dress with a blindfold on?"

"Right. That's where I come in I guess." Dolph said forgetting that that might be hard for her.

"This is starting to feel like a birthday present for you, and not me." She said letting him undress her.

"I promise, no funny business, I just really want you to change." Dolph had to restrain himself from not touching her unnecessarily. She let him change her into the new clothes, and he was mentally having a break down. He wanted to touch her, but he had promised. And he was keeping his promise.

"Alright, done. Now let's walk a few more steps and then I will take the blindfold off." AJ was getting antsy, so a few more steps was music to her ears.

They walked again, and finally stopped a few steps later. Dolph took a deep breath. Now that they had actually got to the surprise, he was nervous. Up until now, he was confident in his multiple gifts for her, but now … he was nervous.

One last breath and he finally untied the blindfold and she quickly opened her eyes. There they were, standing on the beach. AJ was confused, the beach was empty and they were standing there facing the ocean. All of a sudden, Dolph wasn't by her side anymore, so she turned and noticed he was … no, this wasn't happening, not right now … he was … down on one knee.

AJ gasped. Bringing her hands up to her mouth, she just then realized the dress. It looked really familiar and she mentally smiled at that, but then she noticed the man on one knee in front of her. She couldn't breathe. This wasn't what she expected from the beach surroundings.

"AJ," he finally said. "Babe, you mean the world to me, and I have loved every single moment that we have spent together. I know it took us awhile to get here, you know, for us to be together, but we got here. That's all that matters, and I could go on and on about what I love most about you but that would take forever. So instead I got you something that could always remind you." Slowly Dolph pulled out a small box from his left pocket.

AJ was silent, she couldn't find her voice. It was lost within the many emotions she was feeling at the moment.

"So, babe, will you, AJ, wear this promise ring?" Dolph's heart was beating fast, and since the beach was empty he couldn't play it off.

"Of course I will Ziggy!" AJ said as he stood up and hugged her as tight as he could. Her voice had come out with a small squeak, but she didn't care. He wanted her to be his, and only his. It was him saying that yes, I want to be with you. They were one step closer to her finger being weighed down by a wedding ring.

He slowly pulled away from the hug and smiled at her. She pulled him down and kissed him with as much passion she could produce. He couldn't believe it; she wanted to wear the ring! She wanted to let everyone else know around her that she was his, and only his.

They stood there. Kissing each other like mad people, but enjoying every single second of it. Once they needed to breath, they pulled away. All you could hear was them breathing, and the waves crashing into each other. AJ looked at him. Deep into his eyes and it reminded her of something.

"Wait, what about Smackdown? Don't we have to go? You have a match tonight."

"Wasn't rule one no questions?" he asked her, trying to get off the subject fast. This wasn't the time to be thinking of Smackdown tonight.

"But that's our job, it's not like we can't show up." AJ was serious. It's not like they could just skip out on work.

"Come on then." he said as he let her go and rolled his eyes, turning around heading back towards the hotel.

"What?" Now she was confused again.

"You want to go to work, let's go to work. Your birthday, your wish, is my command." Dolph said. He knew she was going to remember about work. So, that's what was going to lead them to her next surprise. But he wasn't going to let her know that. She was going to think he was slightly irritated with her, but still wanted her to have a good birthday. He knew her like that back of his hand; he knew exactly what buttons to push to get certain reactions.

AJ ran up to him and grabbed his hand feeling guilty about ruining their moment. It was a defining moment in their relationship, and she ruined it. She felt horrible; the walk back to the hotel was silent. And not their usual, good silence. It was filled with guilt on AJ's part, but Dolph had to keep himself from cracking. He was starting to feel bad, because it was him who made her feel bad about it. He just needed her to feel bad for about another thirty minutes, and then they could be happy again.

Ugh! This was killing him, he had seen her wipe a couple of tears, and that made him want to crack. But they were walking into the arena, and he needed to hold on for literally two more minutes. They walked into their locker room, and he didn't even say anything to her. He quickly put down his stuff and left.

No. This wasn't happening. Not now and not on her birthday. She quickly went after him. Yelling his name but he wouldn't stop and turn around. Now she was getting angry. He shouldn't be THAT mad over something so small. He kept walking and it seemed as though he was picking up his pace. Desperate times, calls for desperate measures. She ran, ran to him and finally caught up to him, glaring at him as she finally saw his face.

"What is your problem?! I know you're mad, but GOSH! I mean, come on Dolph work with me here!" she was breathing heavy again, but Dolph didn't seem to care. She just poured out her frustrations and he just stood there.

"You want to know my REAL problem?" Dolph asked.

"YES! I just asked you that like two seconds ago."

"They didn't bring the right cupcakes." Dolph said knowing she would be confused and had no idea what he was talking about. He then, walked through the door leading into catering and left her there.

"What are you talking about?! UGH!" AJ opened the door frustrated and looked up to see all her wrestling friends screaming at her saying 'Happy Birthday'. When she looked around she saw everyone! All her friends, Punk, Kofi, Santino, Kaitlyn, Layla, Rosa, Stephanie … woah! Wait a second, Stephanie McMahon was at her birthday party?! This was too much. All of this was happening at once and she couldn't believe it.

Dolph could see the surprise look on her face and he felt proud of himself. He did this. He put that gorgeous smile, on her gorgeous face.

"What are you doing just standing there fella? This is your birthday party! Let's dance!" Sheamus said lifting up his half drunken pint getting everyone else back into the partying mood.

AJ smiled at that and at the site of everyone dancing and having fun in celebration of her birthday. She couldn't believe Dolph was doing this for her. He was letting everyone into their small circle to celebrate her birthday. This was a dream come true, and more than just a fairytale.

About an hour into the party, some people had to leave to either do promos, segments, or they actually had a match. That's when she realized Dolph had a match too, and she was on commentary this time. It was almost time and she was making her way through the crowd trying to find Dolph. Once she found him, they went back to their locker room to get ready.

"Were you having fun?" Dolph asked her as he pulled up trunks.

"Yes! I love it! Thank you so much Ziggy," she said walking over to him and kissing him. "This is the best birthday ever."

"Well, thank you. I wanted to make sure you loved your birthday. You deserve it and you're more than worth it." He said with a smiled and kissed her forehead.

"You ready for your match? It might be kind of awkward going back to the party after you beat Kofi." AJ said with a giggle.

"Who says I'm going to win?" Dolph laughed. "I'm sorry, I tried to act worried, but it didn't work. Of course I'm going to win! I'm finally getting my momentum back, and I'm on a roll."

AJ loved seeing him in this mode. His egotistical mode. His wrestling mode. She enjoying him as his character and then coming back through the curtain and then being the complete opposite. It was quite entertaining.

"Come on Mr. Ego you have a match to go to." She pulled on Dolph's hand dragging him with her to the curtain. Show time. They heard his music and they walked out there ready to do their thing, along with Big E of course.

During the match, it was back and forth. It always was when it came to matches with Kofi. AJ wasn't worried, but all of a sudden Kofi got Big E outside the ring. E was laid out and couldn't help Dolph if he needed help. Not that he needed it, but the extra insurance policy was nice. Once Kofi was back in the ring, Dolph got the win and they celebrated. She knew he could do it, and didn't need assistance to do so.

Once they got backstage, Dolph kissed her and told her was going to go take his shower and he'd meet her back at the party. Big E nodded in agreement because he needed a shower too. Beating up a sweaty highflier did take some effort. As she walked back to the party she saw a sight she didn't want to see. Nikki. Nikki Bella. She was over by some crates talking and laughing with her new boy toy John Cena. She didn't know what to do; she had to walk past them to get to catering. She took the high road and decided to walk past like the mature 26 year old she wanted them to think she was. To be honest, she had to no problem with Cena. She was dating Dolph when she was put in the storyline with Cena, so the "hurt crazy chick" gimmick was all an act. Who did hurt her, was Daniel and slightly Punk. But they had been friends long before the storyline, and they never got too intimate.

"Hey AJ!" Cena yelled as she walked past making Nikki turn around and face her giving her s small smile. "I hope you're having a good birthday."

"Thank you, and yes I'm having a great birthday," she said with a real smile. "You guys want to come in and get some cake and punch?"

"Oh yea sure, we didn't know if we were invited or not, so we didn't want to crash your party." Cena said being honest. AJ noticed that during this whole conversation with John, Nikki was eyeing her. Looking her up and down, but she wasn't bothered. She pushed her insecurities down and kept talking to John.

"Yea, it's no problem, come on, I'm sure there's still enough room" she said with a laugh. She felt a small kiss on her cheek and realized it was Dolph. He put his arms around her and smiled at John and Nikki.

Dolph hadn't seen or spoken to Nikki since the day after they had broken up. It had left Dolph distraught and heartbroken. He was the way he was with AJ because of his relationship with Nikki. AJ was the same though. They shared that pain, that common ground of hurt was there so they never really talked about it much. When they did talk about it Dolph was always unwilling to open up. He never wanted to talk about it and bottled it all up. AJ knew exactly what was going to happen. She knew he was eventually going to explode over something simple she did that reminded him of Nikki. Prying it out of him wasn't going to work, so she slowly was trying to ease it out of him, but that tactic hadn't been working either.

"Are they coming in babe?" Dolph asked and looked down at her.

"Yea we were just about to come in."

"Well lets party then!" AJ walked in first and John followed, Dolph held the door open for them and Nikki was next, but she didn't move, she was staring at him.

"Are you going to go or not?" That came out ruder than it needed to but he didn't care. Being rude to her was like being rude to a bully who beat you up all the time in middle school.

"Umm, can I talk to you for a second?" Nikki asked in a serious voice.

"During the middle of my girlfriend's party? How about no?" he said making his way through the door. He felt a hand gripping his arm, and his head flew back. "What do you want?" He knew she wasn't going to go away.

"I just wanted to ask you to tell AJ happy birthday for me. I didn't know if it would be awkward or not for her with me talking to her and everything, so I wanted to ask someone … like you." She said with a small smile. Dolph couldn't tell if she was being genuine or not, what he did know was that she wasn't through talking to him. Nikki always wanted more than what she told you she wanted, and right now, her next statement want going to be good.

"I also wanted to ask were we ok?" she said with a smirk.

Dolph mentally couldn't process that question. Was she seriously asking that question? What did she mean 'are they ok?' What does that even mean coming from her? He stood there with a dumbfounded look, as though he didn't understand the question.

"Hello? Am I talking to myself?" she asked with a victorious smirk on her face.

"You know what? I honestly don't have time for you right now. It's my girlfriend's birthday, and you're asking me, my EX-girlfriend, are we ok? Are you serious? You couldn't have chosen a worse time to ask me this question."

Dolph wasn't aware that AJ and John had walked back out to the hallway to see what was taking them so long.

"Dolph I -"she started but Dolph interrupted her.

He was doing it. He was doing exactly what AJ was afraid of, him blowing up at a random moment and time. Luckily it wasn't at her, but the anger was still there and he wasn't going to hold back.

"SHUTUP! I don't want to hear anything you have to say. What could you possibly say to me, as a human being, as a person with as small as a DROP of feelings inside your cruel body?! What could you say?! You want to know if 'we're ok'?! Let me answer for you honestly Nikki, no! We were never ok since that day and you know it and you know exactly why. How could you even have the nerve to even talk to me, let alone talk about the past?!"

AJ and John just stood there. They couldn't believe the anger coming out of this usually calm man. Even if they did interrupt, what could they say? What would make him feel better? This was making him feel better. Yelling at the person who messed with his mind for so long, and had him in a bind. The person who wouldn't allow him to utter those three words, to the person he loved the most.

"Dolph calm down I was just asking -" Nikki started again, taken back by how much anger he was putting out. Her plan was to get him a little irritated with her and let AJ see he still cared about their break up, but she didn't intend on him screaming to the top of his lungs at her.

"Calm down?! Calm down?! It's a little too late for you to want me to call down! You remember that day, when you asked me how I felt about what you did? You stood there in my face and asked me how it FELT to get CHEATED on. How would you feel? Huh Nikki? Tell me how you would answer that question. If you came home from work and found John lying in bed with another girl. And oh no! You couldn't stop there Nikki, you made the person you slept with someone I know! A very close friend of mine! What type of person does that?!" Dolph felt himself breathing really hard. He wasn't done though. He needed to get this off his chest so he could finally move on.

"Dolph -" Nikki started again. She saw John out of the corner of her staring at her in disbelief, and AJ on the other hand looking hurt. AJ felt sorry for her boyfriend.

"You just don't know when to stop do you? I'm actually happy now, and here you come, waltzing in here like nothing happened at all. I'm happy Nikki, and that's something I realize now that I never felt with you. You made me feel less than and like I wasn't good enough for you, when really; you weren't good enough for me! I was honest and loyal and I respected you, but you … you used me. You took my kindness for weakness and you did something that I couldn't forgive you for."

"I don't understand why you're still upset! It was a couple years ago! Get over it!" Nikki said. She honestly didn't know why he was still THIS upset.

Dolph's breathing hadn't slowed down and he honestly want to slap her, but he knew he couldn't. Dolph still didn't know AJ and John were behind him, so he kept going. Letting out everything he had held in the last couple of years.

"Yes, Nikki, you're right, it was a few years ago, but ever since then, any brunette that I even found attractive I turned away from because they automatically reminded me of you. A cold heart, lying, manipulative, ugly woman. And I didn't want that for myself anymore. But do you really want to know why it still bothers me?"

"Yes, please indulge me on why you're so stuck in a past life that isn't even relevant anymore?!"

"I have a beautiful brunette now that I can't even express my feelings too because of you. And she's different, she's nothing like you. And when I say nothing, I mean NOTHING like you. She's perfect in every way possible, but I can't tell her that because right when I think I'm ready, I get scared. Scared that she'll reject me and will break me down how you did. I loved you Nikki, I honestly did, but looking back I don't know why. I should have seen the signs, the early hints, but I didn't. But I don't love you anymore, I hate you to be honest, because I love a brunette named AJ and I can't even tell her. Now, I can't blame her if she starts to think I don't care, or she leaves me because we've been dating for so long and I haven't said I loved her yet. But I do, that's thing Nikki … I do love her. But me not telling her, how do you think that makes her feel?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Nikki said making a face and pointing to AJ standing behind him. Dolph turned around and saw her. Standing there with those big eyes, slightly tearing up. He couldn't do this right now. Knowing Nikki, she probably was there the whole time but Nikki didn't say anything so AJ could hear his rant.

There he was, standing in front of his girlfriend, the birthday girl, breathing like he had just wrestled in the Royal Rumble all over again. He saw the pity in her eyes, and he hated it. He hated pity. He needed to get out of here. All of a sudden after the few moments they had of looking at each other, he walked away. He ran away to be honest. He was running away from a pity party she was going to throw for him.

"DOLPH!" he could hear AJ yelling his name, but he drowned it out. He felt like a teenage girl after her first heart break. Except, he was a grown man, on the other side of the arena where he knew no one would find him. He was hurt, there was no denying it, and the words he had just screamed at her proved it. All he needed was time. Time to think. Time to calm down. All he needed was time.

AJ looked all over for Dolph, but couldn't find him. He had to be somewhere in the arena. She knew he hadn't left because his things were still in the locker room. AJ asked around but they all pointed her in different directions. She was making circles around the arena, but then gave up from her feet aching. She went back to the locker room and sat there. What next? What would she say or do now? Did he need a hug? Did he need a kiss? What could she do to make him feel better?

"Babe, I need you to come out here, I have a surprise for you." It was Dolph's voice but he wasn't in the room. He was on the television on the last few minutes of Smackdown that weren't shown on tv. He was actually out in the ring. What was he doing?

AJ ran to the curtain and yelled for her music to play and she skipped down to the ring. Dolph was smiling and laughing with the fans as though nothing thirty minutes ago had ever happened. He had the WWE Universe sing her happy birthday and everybody in the audience signed a really big card that said happy birthday on it. But that wasn't it; he had invited her whole family there. Why didn't she see them when he had his match earlier? Of course, being the sap she was, she started crying and he hugged and kissed her. It didn't feel right though. It wasn't him kissing her, it was his character and she knew the difference.

Once the whole birthday celebration was over with the fans, everyone started leaving. AJ and Dolph walked back to catering to thank everyone for coming. AJ wanted to especially thank Stephanie. Everyone was gone and it was up to them to take home anything they wanted to actually keep, food, her presents, and some other souvenirs. It was silent. She could tell he was thinking and being caged about this whole situation for a reason, but she wasn't going to stand by and watch him beat himself up about it.

She walked up to him as he was placing the last cupcake into the Tupperware. He snapped the lid shut and did everything he could instead of make eye contact with her. She pulled him close holding him with one arm and making him look at her with the other. All she could do was just stare at him. She knew that words weren't going to solve anything right now; silence was the answer for now. Those blue eyes of his were filled with hurt and he was vulnerable. He didn't know what to do with himself. AJ gave him a half smile and looked at her ring … the ring he had given her a few hours ago. He looked down to where she was looking and saw the ring too, and looked back up at her. She nodded slightly and finally pulled him into a strong embrace, making sure he knew that if she could, she wouldn't let go.

Dolph was numb. He was so disappointed in himself. He had let all this anger build up inside and it finally made him crack. The strong outer shell he had tried so hard to build had finally cracked. Now his feelings were naked. No shield to protect them and no shelter to hide in.

The drive home was silent. AJ was actually getting fed up with the silent treatment. Even though she understood why, he needed to get this out and this was not how she was going to end her birthday. All she could think about was what she could have done to prevent this. What could she have done different today to prevent this? The whole ride home she thought about that handsome, happy man she woke up to that morning. How he was trying to get her into a better mood about her birthday. How he was more excited about it than she was at first. But then things changed. He showed her that she deserved a good birthday and that she now had someone special to share it with.

"Talk to me baby … please." She finally said as they were on opposite sides of the bed taking back the sheets and fixing the pillows how they liked them.

He looked at her and all he could do was just that … look. The numbness hadn't worn off yet and he didn't feel like wasting any more energy on the subject tonight.

"All I want to do is help. I know what you're going through right now, and I understand your pride is shattered right now, but don't shut me out. All I want is to end my birthday on a good note and you like this isn't a good note." AJ was being honest. This wasn't how she wanted to end her birthday, and she didn't want to see him like this.

He laid down, and so did she, facing him, waiting for him to speak. They sat there, again, in silence, but this time he spoke up.

"She … she cheated on me a few years ago. We had been dating for almost a year. I came home from a house show and I found her in bed with Zack. I broke up with her on the spot, and that was that. The next day she asked to meet me so she could get all her things back, I agreed. I wanted her out of my life, and I wanted all of her things gone too." He finally made eye contact with her ever since he started his story, and she started running her fingers through his hair, scooting closer to him up under the covers.

"She asked me how it felt. What it felt like to walk in that room. I didn't even answer her and I just walked away and drove off. I haven't seen or talked to her since then until tonight. But getting that off my chest helped a lot. I don't feel burdened any more. The only reason I've been quiet was because I'm disappointed in myself. I shouldn't have done it there at your party." Their fingers intertwined and AJ's heart skipped a beat. He was touching her. That had to mean something right?

"I didn't want you to hear any of that. This is was suppose to be your day and I ruined it with my stupid problems. I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you tomo -"He was hushed by a passionate kiss from her. He immediately responded with the same amount of passion and the kiss was deepened. Dolph needed this; he needed her to be there for him, even on her birthday.

"I – I love you," he said when the pulled away from the kiss. "I have for a long time actually. You're perfect for me babe and I don't want to love anyone else but you."

AJ smiled and kissed him briefly. Her next move needed to be played out accurately or it wasn't going to work at all.

"I love you too Ziggy, and never forget it. I don't know what I would do without you … Can I ask you a question?"

"Anything babe." He said playing with their still intertwined fingers.

"You know how you once told me you that were 'too athletic' for anyone to handle?" she said sitting up on her elbow now.

Dolph raised his eyebrows, in suspicion, a small smile growing on his face.

AJ noticed the smile and that put a smile on her face. "Well, I was just wondering since it's my birthday, and since you did say earlier that my wish was your command, I was just wondering if … oh ya know … if you know …" she said not finishing the sentence on purpose.

"Gosh you don't know what you do to me!" he said kissing her immediately rolling on top of her. This was going to be the end of a great birthday. She was happy she could get his mind off of things and that he was no longer disturbed by Nikki. He was hers.

"Anyone who ever comes close to the amount of fun I had on this birthday has to be one of happiest person on Earth." She said looking at him running her fingers through his hair still.

"And anyone able to find and love someone as perfect as you, they definitely are the luckiest people on Earth. Of course, next to us. I mean look at us, we're adorable." He said with his gorgeous smile he knew she loved.

"Shutup and kiss me again." Dolph laughed and kissed her again knowing what the end result on this frenzy would be.


	3. Couples, Couples, and Big E

"Babe, we finally got a day off to do whatever we want, when we want to, and you just want to lie in bed and do nothing?" Dolph asked his girlfriend. Sure, they could catch up on sleep, but today wasn't one of those days.

"I don't consider laying here with you doing nothing. You're warm, and you're shirtless, and that is all the entertainment I need." AJ said rolling onto her other side looking at him.

"Awe, you're so sweet. But seriously, we need to do something today. Get out of this hotel and actually live a little." Yes, they had spent most of their night last night doing some things that shouldn't be mentioned, but it was 11 o'clock and he knew she wasn't still tired.

"Why are you so adamant about getting me out of bed? My birthday was yesterday, so I don't see any reason for me to HAVE to get out of bed today."

Dolph did something dirty. Something he knew would make her crack and it made the playing fields unleveled … he pouted. He made his eyes glassy, which made his blue eyes beam, and he did the puppy dog face.

"Ohhhh no! Nope, I'm not falling for it this time!" AJ said trying her hardest to stay strong and not give in to what they both called "The Puppy Look". It was so hard, but she was holding on. If they got out of bed, then that meant all of last night would officially be over, and she didn't want it to be over just yet.

Dolph was persistent. He kept going, knowing she was eventually going to crack. "All I want to do is take you out today, and then we can do whatever you want to do."

AJ glared at him, which signaled she had cracked. He got out of the bed and was headed for the bathroom. "Fine! But I'm not going to enjoy it."

"Yes you are." He said, his voice slowly drifting off as he went into the bathroom. Dolph had no idea what they were going to do. But he wanted to make up a couple hours to her that he took away from her birthday last night. He took up at least two hours of her time yesterday, over something stupid. So, here he was, looking in the hotel bathroom mirror, thinking about what to do with her today. Finally it hit him, last night the guys were talking about doing a couple game show to see which WWE couple, knew the most about each other.

"Ziggy what are we even going to do when we leave?" AJ said as she came into the bathroom with her stuff to take a shower.

Dolph was smiling. He knew she would love this. Well, at least he hoped she would love it. She loved being around her wrestling friends, and hanging out with them outside of work, and away from the arena would be nice. "We're going to hang out with some friends."

"Oh ok. Like who?"

"You'll see when we get there."

"I thought we were done with surprises babe!" AJ whined.

"Well you thought wrong." He said with a wink and a cheeky smile.

They both hopped in the shower and got ready. When they got there, it was a huge, decorated studio that they had rented out. All of a sudden Big E came out of nowhere wearing a suit and had some cards in his hands. AJ looked around to see all their friends. But there was something different. It was all the couples, and not just everyone. "Dolph, what are we doing?"

"Hi, my name is Big E Langston and I will be your host for tonight. Tonight we will be playing multiple rounds of trivia, with different sets of superstars and divas to see which couple, knows their spouse the best. Round one will be the 'Newly Daters' as I like to call them! Come on down Cody and Kaitlyn, Sheamus and Layla, and John and Nikki!"

Uh-Oh. She was here. AJ got worried. She didn't want another explosion. "Babe, we don't have to be here –"

"I'm fine … I swear! I got it all off my chest last night and now I'm ok with it." Dolph said trying to get that worried look off her face. "Babe, I promise, I'm 100% ok."

"Ok, well. Let's sit down and watch. Wait. Are we going up there too?!" AJ just then was realizing that it was a couple's game and that THEY were a couple.

"Ummm I don't know. When they told me about it last night, I never gave them a definite answer that we would be here, so I don't know if we're in a round or not. It looks like fun though."

"Yea it does." It really did look fun, and she wanted to do it. During the first couple of rounds everyone was laughing at the guys and their answers, the girls coming back out and being blown away by the answers, and their reactions. It was fun to watch the guys screw up on the simple things, but knowing the answer to the things that really mattered.

"Alright!" Big E said in his famous interview voice that everyone found funny. "Now, we're in Round 5. The next three couples to test their knowledge aaarrrreeee Dolph and AJ, Antonio and Aksana, and Kofi and Cameron! All you guys …. COME ON DOOOWWWNN!" Everyone was clapping as though they really were on a game show. Well, all that was missing was the audience and the cameras, and they would be. AJ was nervous though. She didn't want to mess up, and him get mad at her for not knowing the right answer.

Once they got up there, Big E started explaining the rules as if they hadn't sat there and watched Round 1 through 4. "So, you all are up here now, but that will soon change. We're first going to send the girls to the back while we ask the guys three questions. When they come back, we will see if the girls can match the answers. After, it's the guy's turn to go to the back and we'll ask the girls more questions. But, as always there will be a bonus question! Are you guys ready?" Everyone said yes or nodded and the girls were sent to the back.

"Question number one. What was the very first meal, your girlfriend cooked for you? Antonio?" Big E said.

"Her mom's famous Italian fish." Antonio said was confidence.

"Dolph?" Big E said with a laugh.

"Uhhhh, I'm most likely going to get this wrong, but I'm going to say … her macaroni and cheese … I think." Dolph honestly wasn't sure. She cooked a lot and to actually pin point her very first thing she cooked him, was a hard question.

When it came back around to Dolph for question two, he couldn't breathe from laughter. The question was "What one item of clothing does your girlfriend wear that you can't stand?" Kofi answered first saying Cameron's underwear and everyone busted out with laughter. Antonio said Aksana's pants. He liked it more when she wore her dresses. It was Dolph's turn and he didn't know to say that wasn't sexual. He was trying to be serious, but the laughter wouldn't let him.

"I'm going with underwear too, E." Dolph finally said still laughing with everyone else.

"Really? Remind me never to come into your locker room ever again ok?" Big E said with a laugh. "Alright, final question, what's one habit that you have that your girlfriend hates?"

All the guys said at the same time, "That one's easy!" and the laughter roared again.

"She hates that I take like twenty minutes every single morning just to do my hair. She hates it, and she says it's quote-unquote 'perfect after the first five minute' and that the other fifteen are just unnecessary." Dolph said using air quotes, making everyone laugh. The other guys answered and the girls came back out.

"So ladies, the guys have answered their questions and are holding cards with the answers on them. Try your best to match them and you'll get points on the board. Let's get to it. I asked your guy first, what the first meal you ever cooked for him was. What did he say?" Big E was enjoying this, and it was bringing everyone together.

The other ladies had gotten that question right, repeating exactly what their boyfriend's had said. AJ felt pressured to answer this question right, so they wouldn't look like the weaker couple.

"Ummm, ugh, that's a hard one. I cook a lot." AJ said trying to remember.

"SEE! I told you this would be a hard one!" Dolph said with a smile. Everyone laughed at him and how his voice went up an octave.

"Come on AJ, you know this one." Cameron said to her. Even though she didn't know the answer, she was trying to push her and make her feel comfortable and confident.

"Ok, I'm just going to say Mac & Cheese." AJ said.

"Why Mac & Cheese? And a better question, why have I not tasted this AJ cooking we speak of?" Big E asked her, seeing the look on her face.

"I make it all the time and he loves it so I'm just going to say that. And E, you never come over, so you miss out." Dolph was smiling like crazy. Not because she got it right, but because everyone around them saw them all coupled up. With AJ, he was always private about everything, but now, he didn't know why. The world deserved to know how much he loved her and it shouldn't be hidden.

AJ laughed and gave him a quick kiss once he lifted up the card and it had Mac & Cheese on.

"Alright ladies, question two, we asked your boyfriends a piece of clothing that you wear that they can't stand. AJ?

"Why me first?! I just answered a question!" AJ said jokingly.

"Fine, fine, we'll come back to you." E said shaking his head. "Cameron?"

It now was back to AJ, and she was still laughing from Cameron whacking Kofi upside the head for saying underwear.

"Umm, I want to believe that he didn't say what I know he said." AJ said looking at Dolph.

"And why is that AJ?" Samantha asked from the audience.

AJ laughed, "He's such a perv sometimes, so I'm trying to convince myself that he didn't say underwear, but I know he did." Dolph was smiling from ear to ear and had a light shade of red on his face.

Dolph lifted up the card, and AJ shook her head as she smiled. She knew her boyfriend too well, and that question was too easy. It was the last question and AJ knew this answer. Or at least she hoped she did. She had a lot of small pet peeves that she hated that he did.

"I hate that he doesn't wear pants when we go to bed." AJ said looked at Dolph who had a confused look on his face. "What? I tell you that all the time!"

"No you don't!" he said still in his normal voice.

"Yea I do! I told you just last night to put some pants on!" AJ said trying to one-up him. This wasn't a real argument but she knew she was right. And what was his answer anyway if he didn't say pants?

"That doesn't count! We were naked, that doesn't count!" Dolph said countering her argument about the night before.

"So if I'm wrong, then what did you say?"

"I said it takes too long to do my hair in the morning." He said as he lifted up his card as if proving to her that's what he said.

"That bothers me, but not as much as you with no pants on!"

"Wait. AJ what's the problem with him in no pants?" E asked slightly interrupting their argument.

"It's like his body has two different temperatures. Like from the waist up, he's all warm and nice to cuddle up to, but his legs are FREEZING! So, I have to sleep diagonally so I can't touch his legs." AJ said to defend herself. Yes, his answer bothered her, but this bothered her more.

"Woah! This was never expressed to me, so … not my fault," Dolph said turning back toward their friends in the audience.

"Oh my God …" AJ said smacking herself in the forehead and covering her face.

"I didn't know that bothered you …"

"Well now you know, right?" AJ said glaring at him. AJ didn't know what to feel about this situation. She wasn't really angry with him; she just knew what bothered her more than he did, so she knew she was right. She couldn't be mad at him though, that was his opinion.

"Ok." Dolph said not wanting this to escalate into and actual argument. This was supposed to be fun, and it just got personal.

"Ok? What do you mean ok? That wasn't a question that had 'ok' has a possible answer to it." Uh-Oh, that's not what she wanted to do. She was escalating it; she was doing exactly what she was trying not to do.

"I just said, ok. It's really not that serious, babe."

"Ok …" AJ said mocking him, while making a face.

Big E turned to the audience making his own face. A 'this is awkward' face and everybody felt the same. "Alright well, we have a three way tie right now, but that can quickly change as we move into the girl's turn. Guys, head on to the back." The guys got up and left, leaving AJ feeling kind of lonely. He had been leaning on her with his arm around her, and since the minor argument, he hadn't touched her. She was cold. Literally cold. She wasn't lying when she said the upper half of his body was always warm.

"Question one, if you guy's house was on fire, what are three things, you would save?"

AJ was stumped. She couldn't figure out the third one. Of course, she would take her comics/video games, her lucky converse, and what else? Oh! Duh! One of Dolph's t-shirts! Ok, no more sweating about that question.

The questions starting getting harder and it made her nervous. One thing Dolph couldn't resist doing every day? Gosh, she started to feel like she didn't know this man at all. Of course she did, but now that she was being asked and pressured to answer these questions, nothing was coming to her. What can Dolph not resist doing? Oh! Touching her hair!

"Alright, final question before our bonus question, and then the guys will come back out. Who hogs the bed covers?"

Everyone said their boyfriend, but the truth was AJ always got the most cover. Sometimes she'd wake up in the morning and see he had another cover on the bed, because she took so much of the original blanket. That's exactly what she told them as her answer. Everyone laughed because she looked dead serious…she liked her covers.

"Bonus Question! This question is brought to you by Sleep Train: your ticket to a better night sleep. Anyway … You and your boyfriend must be criminals because you're always stealing his blank, and he's always stealing your blank?

AJ knew they were going to get this one right. This one was easy, but hard. It all came down to Dolph's memory. She chose what she thought would be a satisfactory answer that could win them the game. The guys came back out and sat down ready for the questions.

"Welcome back guys. While you were away we asked the ladies three questions and a bonus question testing their and your knowledge on the relationship. First we asked the girls, if you guy's house caught on fire, what would be three things, she would save? Dolph?"

"Definitely her lucky chucks, her comics and video games, and … I don't know honestly. Maybe, her … action figures?" Dolph said and looked over at her to see if he got it right. He got most of it right earning them some points and a smile from her.

When it rolled back around to Dolph and he was asked what he couldn't resist doing every day, he answered almost immediately saying touching her hair.

"Why do you like her hair so much Dolph?" Big E asked.

"I don't even know. It's just always there and it's really fluffy. My hands are addicted to it." He answered with a laugh. Next question, which of them got the most covers. If he said himself he would be lying through his teeth. So he said AJ, once again getting the answer right.

Antonio was upset with Aksana because she said he got the most covers, and he said she got them most covers. It reminded Dolph and AJ about their little disagreement earlier, and they both looked at each other. AJ cuddled up to him and was waiting for him to answer the bonus question. Her answer was so corny, but it was her being honest.

"Dolph, if you get this right, you guys win and get the prize of an all expenses paid trip to … whatever that restaurant is called next door!" E said trying to play off the fact that he forgot the name of the restaurant.

"She is always stealing my … t-shirts. And I'm always stealing -" he was interrupted by everyone in the audience say at the same time 'the show, and your girlfriend'.

"I wasn't going to say that but we all know it's true! As I was saying, she always steals my t-shirts, and I'm always stealing her … heart?" Dolph wanted that to be the answer. When she lifted up that card and it said exactly what he just said, she jumped into his arms and gave him a big kiss.

"Get a room!" Sheamus screamed from the audience, which made them stop and laugh. They had won. They were the superior couple, and that felt great. But that wasn't it. Since there was a total of 5 couples that won and there was an even better prize. The five couples were going to answer one final bonus question, and the winner of that, got V.I.P. treatment from everyone for the next month at any place or time. Everyone was up for it, and E did this on purpose.

"For our FINAL bonus question, you have to do something. And no, it's not a question, I understand that, so don't any of you complain. You will do an array of small exercises and the couple that ends up on top, wins." Big E looked around the stage at the couples and their confused faces. "Just listen for what you're supposed to do!" E said with a glare at everyone.

Uh-Oh. AJ realized that this was Big E trying to get Dolph to open up about his family. She complained to him a couple of times about never meeting them, other than his parents. He was so distant when it came to talking about his family, and that bothered her. AJ had such a big family that she had no chose but to be open about everything. The activity was to name as many family member of your spouse as you could. AJ only knew about 5 people, and that was embarrassing.

Dolph knew where this was going and he was uncomfortable. He knew a lot of AJ's family members and he could list twenty of them without even thinking about it. But she on the other hand, only knew his parents and his brothers. Big E knew that too, so this obviously was a little plan of his. He would get him back later for it.

When they had to present to the audience, everyone was tallying up how many family member they had. It finally came around to Dolph and AJ and they held up their huge boards, and everyone got to see basically AJ's whole family, and Dolph's parents … and his two brothers.

"Um, Dolph? Why does AJ only have like 5 people on her list?" Big E asked him in his voice, but still trying to be serious.

"It's quite obvious E. She hasn't met a lot of my family." Dolph said as though there was no problem with what he just said.

"AJ, why haven't you met a lot of his family?" Everyone's head shot to her as though she had breaking news and she was the only one that knew a very big secret.

"…I don't know," AJ said, her voice just above a whisper. "But, with our schedules, it's not possible to meet or see a lot of family. You know that E, so … yea." She said finding her voice, and trying to shrug off the fact that she wanted the answer to that question.

"Dolph? Any comment on that?" Big E wasn't giving up on this. He had to be bold, and he was only doing this as a favor for AJ. She was the one who suggested him to the creative team about him being their bodyguard when their storyline started. He had to make that up to her by getting answers to questions he knew she had no answer to.

AJ didn't have time for E's games. She didn't care about her friends being there. She wanted the answer and she wasn't going to leave here until she got one. AJ didn't give Dolph time to answer. "Dolph," she said looking at him as though waiting for him to answer the question. "Why?"

This wasn't happening. He mentally cursed himself for doing this. He should have just stayed in bed with her all day and this question wouldn't even have come up.

"They … I … I just don't want you to meet them." Dolph said stuttering at first, but completing the sentence.

"Why though babe? I mean it's obvious that you don't want me to meet them, but why?" She said. Yes she was prying but she needed to know.

"Can we not talk about this here?" Dolph asked looking at her with pleading eyes.

"Why? They're our friends. We've exposed almost everything about our relationship to them, so why can't they know?"

"My family doesn't deserve to meet you ok?! Period. End of story. You wanted to know why, that's why. Any other questions you would like answered AJ?"

He called her … AJ. AJ. The last time he called her AJ in this tone was when they had their first argument that almost made them breakup.

"Why are you being so difficult and annoying? What's wrong with you? Ever since last night -" AJ stopped herself. No. No. No. No. No. She did it. She brought it up. She was throwing it back up in his face. All she saw was his eyes, and the multiple emotions he was feelings. "I'm sorry Ziggy I didn't mean that!"

"What's wrong with me is that I just found out today two things that bother you about me that I had NO clue about. So how about this, since I'm bothering you, and I'm being difficult, oh, and let's not forget annoying, how about I go back to the hotel. And how about you come back, when you're not upset with me, or you no longer find me annoying, and you don't want to know the answer to questions I don't really want to tell you right now." Dolph stood up, and she stood up too. They had blocked out everything and everybody around them.

"Dolph, stop being like this!" AJ said with tears building up in her eyes, threatening to cascade down her face.

"Oh, I'll make sure to have pants on considering we both know you hold grudges, and you won't be back before I'm in bed. It's all about you babe. Making sure you're happy is my ultimate goal." He said with obvious sarcasm in his voice.

Where was this coming from? All she wanted to know was why he wouldn't let her meet his family. That's all and nothing more. Was he right? Was it not the right place to do this at? Tears actually started to flow down her cheeks, which made Dolph know he needed to leave. In unison, they both looked away from each other and at their friends looking at them with worried faces. AJ saw those faces, and looked back at Dolph.

Without a word … he left.


	4. You're Everything To Me

She watched him … for the second time in the last 24 hours … she saw him walk away. This time he left, slamming the door behind him. Her girl friends came up to her, hugging her, telling her that everything was going to be alright. All she could do was cry. Letting them console her, and feeling guilty for even bringing up his past again.

"Cody … Sheamus … Kofi … go make sure he doesn't do anything stupid … please?" They nodded and quickly left to go find Dolph. This is why she hadn't wanted to get out of bed today. When you get out of bed, there is always a 50/50 chance you won't like the outcome of your day. She wanted to stay in bed and be happy with her happy boyfriend.

It was AJ's turn. It was her turn to feel numb. She couldn't process what just happened. She honestly didn't want to. She was sorry, extremely sorry, but there was some underlying anger there that she had nothing to do with. All she wanted was her happy, sweet, boyfriend back. If she could have anything on Earth, that's what she wanted.

All Dolph could do was walk. He just kept walking not aware of where he was going, or what he doing. Dolph felt arms on his shoulders, signaling him to stop walking. When he turned around, he saw three of his friends, watching him, and waiting for him to say something … anything. "I'm sorry I ruined your day guys, I just have a lot on my mind right now." He said not making eye contact with any of them.

"Hey fella, you know we're here for you." Sheamus said willing to help out his friend in any way possible.

"Yea man, you know we've always got your back no matter what." It was Kofi's turn to be a good friend. Dolph and Kofi had been friends ever since Kofi got drafted, and that friendship was always going to be there. Cody was the newest member of their group and all he did was nod.

"Come on, let's go back so we can -" Kofi started, but couldn't finish.

"NO!" Dolph said with paranoid eyes. He didn't want to go back there. He couldn't face her right now. Not with her crying. Not with her crying … because of him.

"Dude, you can't run away from it. It only makes it worse." Cody finally spoke up. "I didn't want Kaitlyn to meet my family either at first. I hated how my brother and father always burdened my girlfriends with their stories and their stupid jokes. But you know what? She thought I was ashamed and embarrassed of her. She thought that I didn't care and that I didn't want her around. We got into a huge fight about it until I finally came clean about everything."

"Sometimes being a man also includes showing you're not a robot. You have to show them your sensitive side sometimes. You can't always be caged up man." Kofi said wanting to help his best friend.

"She … she has a really big family. Everyone is so close and they communicate. They talk about things and express their feelings. The way we are is completely different." Dolph said trying to fill Cody in more than anyone. Kofi and Sheamus had met his family before, and Dolph was right to not want AJ exposed to that yet. "The last time I saw or have spoken to my parents was when we were just in Cleveland for the house show. I had to act like I was excited for them to be there, when all I really wanted was for them to leave."

Dolph wasn't the type of person to show his emotions. Everyone could see from how nonchalant he would be about certain things. He had tried to hide all insecurities and all flaws behind his smile. That smile got him through a lot of situations, and now, his smile only made it worse. AJ knew him well enough to know when that smile was real or not and that's something he wasn't use to. Which made her start asking questions and that made him seem caged. He was caged, but that's where his emotions needed to be. Locked up and away from anyone who wanted to hurt him … right?

"Come on Ziggles! Cheer up!" Sheamus said with a laugh, knowing that would get Dolph's mind off of things. Dolph hated when he called him 'Ziggles' and Sheamus knew it. Cody looked down at his phone as he received a text from Kaitlyn asking if everything was ok. Kaitlyn had a plan … a plan that had to be played out correctly.

"Ha Ha. You're soooo funny." Dolph said with a glare. They were still standing in the middle of the sidewalk. All at once, everyone looked around. They had just had a heart-to-heart conversation in the middle of the street.

"Let's go somewhere to get your mind off of things," Cody said since he knew Dolph didn't want to go back to the studio where everyone else was. "How about we go to Buffalo Wild Wing? They have TVs everywhere, and the wings are amazing!"

Dolph was quiet. He was thinking about what he wanted to do. Go back to the hotel … alone, or go out with his friends who are trying to make him feel better. "Alright, let's go." He gave them a half smile and they were on their way.

Back inside the studio, AJ was just now starting to calm down. The crying had just stopped and she was getting back to her normal breathing. The girls were still consoling her and telling her that Dolph was just upset right now.

"Bestfriend, you know that he's just upset. He loves you, and he's just going through something right now." Kaitlyn said. She needed to cheer AJ up enough so AJ would want to leave and go somewhere.

"The problem is Kaitlyn, he won't let me help him. He won't let me help him through whatever he's going through." AJ said putting her head down.

"All he needs is time -"

"Time?! How much time?! How am I supposed to sit there and let him feel bad about something for God knows how long?! Oh wait no; I'm going to leave him alone because he needs time." AJ said sarcastically. Time was the last thing they had.

"AJ calm down, alright? Let's get out of here, and go somewhere." Layla suggested.

"YES!" Kaitlyn said almost too excited for AJ's liking. "I mean … yea … get your mind off things."

AJ looked at Kaitlyn with a 'what is wrong with you' face, which made everyone laugh. She covered her face with her hands, and took a deep breath. "Fine. Where are we going?"

"Oh! I know! There's this really good new wing restaurant right up the street, let's go there." Kaitlyn said, her plan getting put into motion. She had to remind herself to thank Layla for unknowingly helping her.

"Alright … let's go." AJ said with a sigh. This was going to be a long day. It was 4 o'clock and she wished it was already Thursday. They had a house show tomorrow, and that's where she could get back in her element.

As they were walking into the restaurant, they immediately saw the boys. Well, except for AJ, and the same for Dolph. Layla and Cameron quickly caught onto Kaitlyn's plan and they froze. The guys were sitting down at an oversized table that could fit them so they went over. AJ was too into her phone, so she was just following Layla's feet. Twitter was getting her mind off of things. When they got to the table, it all of a sudden got quiet. AJ looked up from her phone.

The first thing she saw was all the girls sitting down next to their boyfriends, and one seat left … next to Dolph. Dolph was in the middle of laughing at Sheamus who had just squirted ketchup all over his shirt. He saw her looking at him and looked down at his phone in his lap.

"Hey guys, can you go get the wings? They just called our number." Kofi said with a smile as though there was so awkwardness at the table right now.

Dolph glared at Kofi, but got up and started heading towards the counter to get their food. AJ followed and they got to the counter. No words were said, and they both tried their best not to look at each other. Suddenly, a girl came up to them that was behind the counter.

"Hey! You're Dolph Ziggler! Omg! I love you so much!" The girl said who's name tag said Lily. "Oh! And you're AJ, the crazy chick that follows him around!" Lily sounded so excited about meeting Dolph.

"Hi, how are you?" Dolph said nicely. He loved meeting his fans outside of the arena.

"I'm good. AJ, you're much shorter in person!" Lily said looking at her for a mere two seconds and then went back to staring at Dolph. Dolph laughed, because AJ hated when people said she was much shorter in laughed it off and put on a really fake smile.

"You are SO much cuter in person! OMG! Can I get a picture real quick? Please?"

"Yea sure." Dolph said with no problem. He didn't notice the face AJ was making.

"AJ can you scoot out the way … I kind of just kind of wanted it to be me and Dolph" Lily said getting the camera ready.

"Oh, yea sure! Don't mind me; I'm just waiting on the wings." AJ's feelings were a little hurt, but she covered it up.

"Thank you so much!" Lily said going back behind the counter but still drooling over Dolph.

"I'm sorry, but you're kind of drooling on our wings." AJ said making a sarcastic and angry face.

"AJ …" Dolph said looking at her. He knew they weren't on the best terms, but she was being rude.

"What?" She said giving him loads of attitude. How could he not see she was obviously flirting with him?

Dolph shook his head, thanked Lily for the wings, and they headed back to the table.

"What took you guys so long?" Cameron said hungry for her wings.

"Mr. Flirtatious had to take pictures with desperate girls drooling over him." AJ said still with an attitude.

Dolph rolled his eyes and sat down in his chair. He honestly didn't want AJ sitting next to him. He could feel himself getting angry, and this was not the place to get into a really heated argument.

"Ok, anyway, so we got lemon pepper for you two, and hot for us, mild for you guys, and spicy for you guys. Is that alright?" Sheamus said still ignoring the awkwardness.

Everyone nodded and started eating their wings. Conversation was little. Nobody knew what to say. The awkwardness had finally got to the point where you couldn't ignore it, and it was thick. You could the tension with a knife and it wasn't letting up.

Lily came up to them unknowingly being their waitress, and asked did they want any drinks with their wings. Everyone ordered and Lily couldn't handle herself. She started rambling about how she was in love with the WWE, and at one point wanted to be a diva when she was little. All AJ could do was roll her eyes, and everyone, except Lily saw it. When she finally realized she had been babbling, she went to go get the drinks.

"What's wrong with you AJ?" Cody asked randomly.

"Oh nothing! I have no problem … at all." She said with a sarcastic smile. This was a very sarcastic day for her, and she didn't like it. She liked being happy and free spirited, but bad things had happened, and that all went down the drain.

"Hey, what time does the UFC fight come on?" Dolph asked to start up conversation.

"Why don't you go ask your new girlfriend Lily?" AJ said under her breath. But Dolph heard it. He heard every word, and it got to him.

"Excuse me?" Dolph said as though he didn't hear her.

"Hey umm I think it comes on at like 5, so it should be up next." Kofi said knowing there was about to be huge argument, and he was trying to avoid it.

"I said … why don't you go ask your new girlfriend Lily!" AJ was being bold. Her frustrations had finally caught up to her, and she wasn't backing down from this fight.

"Why would you even say that?" Dolph asked taken back by how bold she was being about this.

"Oh I don't know. Maybe it has to do with the fact that you were being nicer to a stranger who was drooling over you than you have been to me for the past hour!"

"Babe, we haven't even talked to each other for the last hour!" Dolph said. She was trying to pin this on him, and it wasn't entirely his fault they weren't speaking.

"Now I'm babe? When you were frustrated and walked out I was AJ. When you were talking to Lily I was AJ. But now I'm babe?" AJ was blowing this way out of proportion, and she knew it.

"I'm not doing this with you." Dolph said turning back to his food.

"So when are we going to do it Dolph? I want to know, so I can know how long I'm going to have to ignore you for."

Dolph ran his hand threw his hair. He had come here to get away from this. He wasn't ready to do this right now, and that's exactly why he left in the first place. "I came here to enjoy these wings, and hang out with my boys, and all you want to do is bring up what I walked out on."

"It's what you're good at. Walking out when all people are trying to do is ask questions that in the end help you!" AJ was fed up with him walking out on her and them not talking.

Dolph laughed. "And exactly, how is this conversation helping me AJ?" AJ sat there. She couldn't answer that question. This argument wasn't helping him. "Exactly. Now if you'll excuse me, I have wings getting cold that I'd like to eat." Dolph once again turned back to his wings.

Everyone was in shock. That had escalated quickly and no one knew what to do. So, for the rest of the meal, it was silent. They all split the bill, and Sheamus left the tip for the waitress. It was time to go their separate ways because they all weren't in the same hotel.

"Alright, we'll see you guys at the house show tomorrow." Kofi said waving to everyone getting into his rental. Dolph and AJ's hotel wasn't far from there, so they walked back … in silence of course. When they got back, Dolph laid out on the bed, and AJ sat on the couch across the room and watched TV. About thirty minutes later there was a knock at the door and it scared both of them. AJ was the closest, so she got up and got the door.

It was the guys. They had beer and a whole lot of junk food in their hands and they invited themselves in. Dolph on the other hand was still lying on his back on the bed with his hands covering his face.

"AJ, it's time for you leave! You have been invited down the hall to an all girls sleepover and spa night. Yes, it is only 7 o'clock, but the party starts in thirty so be ready!" It sounded like Cody was more excited for it than her as he said that.

"What are you talking about?" AJ asked not really wanting to understand.

"The girls are having a sleepover a few doors down and they want you to come." Cody said with a 'duh' face.

"I'm really not in the mood." AJ said sitting back on the couch watching her show.

"Don't get your hopes up guys, she's never in the mood." Dolph said sarcastically, but not moving.

AJ glared his way. "You know what? I'll go. Any excuse to get away from him, I'm ok with." AJ went to her suitcase and started getting things out she needed.

"Dolph, that was uncalled for." Kofi said seeing how upset AJ was over his statement.

"This entire situation is uncalled for Kofi!" Dolph said sitting up. "The arguing, the silence, the tears, it's all uncalled for and it could have been avoided, but here we are." He stood up and went over to the window. He had forgotten AJ was still in there, so he, once again, let out all his frustrations like there was no tomorrow.

"I'm tired of it. All I want … all I wanted was some time. Some time to figure out what my next step was, but no. I couldn't get that." Dolph finally was letting his feelings show. Sure, he had the day before with Nikki, but that was different. He was letting it out on someone he didn't care about anymore. This was with someone he loved, and he cared about her a lot. So this was different.

"Man, we know how you feel."

"No you don't. I hate when people say they know how you feel, when you know they don't." Dolph said back to Kofi. Dolph watched cars go by, and he heard the bathroom door close. He snapped his head, and realized it was AJ going in there. "She's eventually not going to forgive me and that'll be the end of the road for us. You know … I never pictured a break up with us until we were sitting down at the table." He said as AJ walked out of bathroom unnoticed by any of the guys. "And it wasn't because I was going to break up with her. It was all that anger and frustration I saw. I just want it to be over and done with. I need this fight to be over, but it's not that easy."

AJ got her things and slammed the door making all the guys turn their heads. "She wants to know so much about me that I don't want to bring up and talk about." All the guys came over and patted him, telling him it would be alright and that they would make it through. The night went on, and the guys watched TV, and drank a couple of beers. On the other hand, the girls were talking about relationships, and telling stories about their best memory with their boyfriend.

The next morning Dolph woke up in bed, with no AJ beside him. She was obviously still at the sleepover, but he still missed her presence. He sat up and looked around and saw all the guys either on the floor or on the couch still sleep. He laid back down and stretched his arms and he felt it hit something. He looked over and saw an envelope, with his name on it. He opened it up and saw a letter written by AJ, to him.

Dolph,

Hi baby. It's me AJ. It's like 2 o'clock in the morning and I couldn't sleep. I've been thinking about you. I've sat here and watching the time go by thinking about how all this started. It all started yesterday when the whole Nikki situation went down. I truly do understand how you felt with that situation because it happened to me too. Daniel did the exact same thing to me and I exploded. I knew you eventually were going to explode because you always hold your emotions in. For your own good, you need to stop that. Haven't you noticed anytime you hold it in, it always ends up with you angrier than you were in the first place? I love you. Please remember that. I love you so much. I want to help you through this, but you have to let me in. This whole situation with your family, I don't want it to ruin us. You're way too important to me loose because I was prying into your business. Tell me when you're ready. Well, if I want to be alive for the house show today so I have to go. You're probably sleeping so I'll leave it beside you in bed. I want to be with you in bed right now … cuddled up to you, but the girls said they would kill me if I left tonight and didn't come back. You're so cute when you're sleep. Anyway, I love you baby. AJ

Dolph smiled. This was the perfect way to communicate to her without the yelling and they could get all their thoughts out without being interrupted. He got the pen she left in the envelope and got a piece of paper and started writing back. It was quite annoying writing confessional letters with snoring in the background from the guys, but he pushed through it.

AJ woke up and realized she was the one that ended up on the bed. The room had two beds and Layla and Cameron ended up on the other bed and Kaitlyn was passed out on the couch. She sat up and realized that her letter to Dolph was on the bed with another letter stapled to it. She opened it and started reading.

AJ,

Hey babe. I don't even know where to start. You're right, this all started when I screamed at Nikki. But I thought I was done, and all that anger was gone, but it wasn't. I started feeling down and bad about myself because I started taking that out on you. You don't deserve that, and I'm sorry. We both have been stupid during this whole thing, and honestly as I look back it could've been avoided. I need you to know that I love you with all my heart and that's never going to change. You mean too much to me to do this anymore. It's stupid and petty, and I haven't touched you in almost 12 hours. You don't know what that's doing to me. No hug. No kiss. No cuddling. No nothing. I'm having withdrawals for you babe. And you're adorable sleeping. Don't think I'm creepy, but I watch you sleep sometimes and play with your hair. Speaking of sleep, the guys are sleep and are annoying me with their uncontrollable snoring. Save me! I love you. Dolph

She giggled. He always knew what to say. She got the pen and paper and started writing again. Once she was done, she tried sliding outside of the room unnoticed, but Kaitlyn woke up.

"Hey where you going with an envelope?"

"I'll tell you later, ok?" Kaitlyn nodded and passed back out.

AJ didn't want to go in and wake the rest of the guys up. Dolph was the only one awake, so she didn't have to worry about someone else getting her letter. So, she knocked once and slid it under the door and ran back to her room.

Dolph heard the knock and grabbed the letter, looking around to see if anyone had woken up. They hadn't so he walked back and got in bed, and began to read.

Ziggy,

Awwe, you're so cute. If I had one wish, it would be for us to go back and not even have had this argument. It wasn't worth the stress and the tears, just like you said. And I am in the mood … sometimes. Lol. Guess what? I would save you, but I most likely would pounce on you at first sight, and I don't think the guys want to wake up that. I don't think you're creepy for watching me sleep. I do the same thing to you. You always fall asleep before me so I just look at you. Then I finally get tired and cuddle up to you more, and fall asleep. I was so cold and lonely last night without you. This was the first time I slept without you because I was mad or upset with you. But don't think I still am, because I'm not. I'm actually smiling writing this believe it or not. You make me smile without even trying babe. AJ

She was incredible. They continued writing back and forth. Flirting, making jokes, and talking about how much they missed each other. Finally everybody woke up and everyone had to get ready for the show. Of course, the guys were ready before the girls, and they left for the arena.

"Hey, isn't this the last house show before Raw?" Kaitlyn asked.

"Yea. So, we have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off." Cameron answered. "Do you guys have anything planned?"

"No, that's what I was thinking. We should all do something together, including the guys." Kaitlyn said thinking about what they could actually do.

"Like what?" The other girls said at the same time, making them laugh.

The girls had a surprise for the boys and they were surprised AJ was agreeing to it. She had woken up with a smile and they were confused why. They didn't complain and they continued getting ready, giggling about their plan.

When the girls got to the arena, they knew where the guys would be. They were in catering with everyone else, filling up before the show. Layla was the only one to walk in. She went up to Sheamus and gave him a note the girls had written with instructions on them. Sheamus looked confused at her and all she did was smile and walk out.

The plan was working and the guys were doing what they were supposed to do. Dolph had to go to their locker room and get some shirts that I had "I'm with her" and a thumb on it. Kofi, Sheamus, and Cody had to get a really big table and ladder and leave it in a random room. The guys were so confused and were trying to figure out what all of this was for. The last step was to go to meet the girls at the ring, but that's where they saw Cameron in a robe standing beside the curtain.

"What is all this?" Sheamus asked.

"You'll see." Cameron said walking past the curtain and into the ring, with the guys following. The guys just stood there in the middle of the ring, not knowing that to do. Cameron had disappeared somehow which left the guys alone.

All of a sudden the lights flashed off and they were looking around trying to see in the dark. A light flashed on and a spotlight was on Kaitlyn in a shirt that said "I mustache you a question" and some shorts to match.

"So um, we were planning something really special for you guys." She said with a really big smile that made the boys really suspicious. Another spotlight came on and it was Cameron in a "On cloud nine with a highflier" shirt on and matching shorts.

"We weren't sure if you guys would like it so we thought we would persuade you." Cameron said with a smirk. Once again, another light, and it was Layla wearing an "I brogue his heart to be with you" shirt and matching shorts.

"And we can be pretty persuasive when we want to be." Layla said also with a smirk. Last but not least another spotlight and this time it was a girl that made Dolph's heart skip a beat. He stopped breathing for a moment when he first saw her.

"So, we have a proposition for you guys. All you guys … all of us … Hawaii … three days. How does that sound?" AJ said with a smile and her eyes fixated on Dolph's. She was wearing a "Stealing the show stealer's heart" shirt on and matching shorts that made Dolph think unhealthy thoughts.

The guys didn't know what to do, or what to say. How did they do this in an hour?

AJ couldn't take it; she walked up to Dolph and grabbed him by his blazer. "So what do you say Ziggy?" She bit her lip and knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to kiss her. She wanted to kiss him too, but they couldn't just yet.

He leaned down, about to kiss her, when she stopped him. "There's one more thing we didn't tell you."

"And what is that?" Cody said, not taking his eyes off of Kaitlyn.

"We're going to be separated!" Layla said.

"WHAT?!" All the guys said at once.

"Yea. You guys on one side of the island, and us on the other. You guys can have your little guy time and we can have some girl time." Cameron said.

"Didn't you have girl time last night? That wasn't enough?" Kofi said.

Dolph had a clever idea. He wasn't sure it was going to work, but it could. He looked down at AJ with a smirk and she was confused. "The Puppy Look" was now about to take place and AJ didn't see it coming.

"No. No. No. No. No. No. NO!" AJ said realizing. It was too late and his eyes were already glassy. "Dolph stop! Don't do this to me!"

"I just want to cuddle with you in Hawaii." Dolph said with his lip poked out.

"Guys! Come on! They can't come?" AJ asked the girls, who weren't cracking yet. The other guys had caught on to Dolph's trick and they started doing the look too.

"AJ be strong! Don't crack!" Layla screamed.

"I will not crack. I will not crack. I will not crack." AJ repeated to herself. She noticed Dolph was coming even closer to her and she started back away until she hit the ring post. She was cornered. "I will not crack."

"We could cuddle on the beach … in bed … on the beach …" Dolph said. They stood there staring at each other, him making the face, and her trying hard to resist the face. The other couples realized that this was their moment and they left the ring, and started heading up the ramp. AJ and Dolph didn't notice though. It had been so long since they both looked into each other's eyes and not seen pain.

"No." She finally said. Dolph backed up from her.

"Ok." He said plainly. That was it? That's all he was going to say?

AJ didn't think. She wanted him. She needed him. She ran up him and lifted herself into his arms, and gave him a really passionate kiss. Dolph responded immediately pulling her as close to him as possible. AJ couldn't believe how much she missed this. They had never gone this long without each other because they were mad.

Dolph stood in the middle of the ring, holding the girl of his dreams in his arms kissing her like there was no tomorrow. Except, there was a tomorrow, and tomorrow they would be in Hawaii.

"I love you." AJ said finally pulling away.

"I love you more." Dolph said putting her down. Dolph gulped remembering the outfit she was wearing. "Ummm, babe?"

"Yea?" she said knowing what he was going to ask her.

"How much longer are you planning on being in that outfit?" Dolph said raising his eyebrows and giving a smirk.

"As long as you need me to, or before your match tonight, whichever one comes first." She smiled as he pulled her close kissing her again.

"How many times am I going to have to tell you two to get a room?!" Sheamus yelled from the top of the ramp. They laughed, walking out of the ring and up the ramp hand in hand. Everyone was happy and excited for their trip they were going to be taking on their off days.

Before AJ and Dolph crossed through the curtain heading backstage, Dolph pulled AJ in for another kiss. "Now … to get you out of those clothes."

"You want me to change already? I thought -"

"Who said anything about changing?" Dolph winked and ran backstage.

"Ugh! You're such a tease!" AJ said running backstage to find him, knowing he would be in their locker room waiting on her.


	5. Tired and Unwanted

They had had a long flight to Hawaii after the show, because the girls wanted to wake up in Hawaii. Dolph wasn't the best person to wake up in the morning when he was really tired and AJ knew it. When they finally got here, she went to the bathroom and he was passed out on the bed when she came back. Dolph felt small kisses on his mouth making him finally wake up. He hadn't opened his eyes yet, so AJ was just laying there kissing him.

"Come on Ziggy, wake up!" AJ said still pecking him on the lips. They were in Hawaii for crying out loud. Any other time, he's begging her to get out of bed, and now when she wants to get out, he wants to stay in. "Ziggy, wake up! We're in Hawaii! Wake up!"

Dolph groaned, still not opening his eyes. All he could find the strength to do was turn over on his other side. AJ wasn't giving up so fast. The bed was huge, so she crawled over him and landed right in his face on the other side.

"I'm not giving up that easy," she started kissing him again. This time, the kisses were longer and she moved as close to him as possible. "Babe, don't make me experience Hawaii without you."

All Dolph wanted was another couple hours of sleep, and he would be fine. AJ on the other hand was making sure he wouldn't get those hours though.

She started whining which made tuning her out and falling back asleep much harder. "Doooolllppphhhh!"

Dolph couldn't even move again to turn away from her. But, he finally opened his eyes. "Babe, I swear, if you give me like 4 more hours of sleep, I will be the most joyful person on Earth." He said mumbling.

"4 hours?! What am I suppose to do for 4 hours while you sleep?!"

"You could look at my amazing body. I know that could keep you entertained for two of those four hours." He said smirking.

"You have enough time to flirt, but you can't get out of bed?" AJ asked slightly annoyed. "Fine. You're going to be the only one missing out on Hawaii."

AJ heard a small snicker come from his mouth. "Babe, I promise you, none of the guys are out of bed."

"I bet you they are. You're the only lazy one this morning." AJ said in confidence.

"Ok fine, go around to all the rooms and see if they're up. If any of them are up, I'll get up, but if they aren't, you have to let me sleep." Dolph said still mumbling.

"Deal." AJ got out of bed and put her robe and slippers on. "Get your last minutes of sleep in babe."

Dolph groaned again and pulled the covers over his head as she left.

AJ went to Shayla's room first. She knocked and Layla soon answered the door. "Hey girlie! I was just coming by to see if you guys are up yet?" AJ asked with a smile.

"I've been up for a while actually, but Sheamus hasn't budged. He refuses to wake up." Layla said rolling her eyes.

"Oh ok, well, call my room when he wakes up and we can start seeing what we're going to do today."

"Yea sure!" Layla said excited about the day.

AJ smiled and Layla closed the door. Up next was Komeron's room. She knocked like she did before and Cameron came to the door. "Hey! You guys up yet?" AJ asked again with a smile, hopeful that Kofi was out of bed.

"Ugh! Don't even bring that subject up! Kofi refuses to move an inch, and all I've been doing is sitting here watching TV." Cameron said rolling her eyes annoyed just like Layla was.

"Well I just came from Layla's room and Sheamus is passed out too. Let's not even talk about Dolph" AJ said with a sigh.

"Is everything ok? I thought you guys were ok now?" Cameron asked concerned.

"Oh no! We're fine! He just won't get out of bed!" AJ said reassuring her that she and Dolph were fine.

"Oh ok, well I'll call you when he wakes up so maybe we can do something later on?"

"I was just about to say that." AJ said with a giggle. "Alright, talk to you later."

"Bye." Cameron said closing the door. It was now all up to Codlyn and AJ was depending on Cody to be up. If he wasn't up, she was going to have to be bored out of her mind back in her room. She once again knocked on the door, praying Cody opened it. Kaitlyn came to the door about thirty seconds later.

"Hey girl! What's up?" Kaitlyn asked with a smile.

"Ummm nothing. I was just coming by to see if you were awake."

"Yea, I'm awake but Cody -"

"HE'S STILL SLEEP?!" AJ said interrupting her.

"Uhh no. He's downstairs at the breakfast buffet getting us some breakfast." Kaitlyn said confused by her anger.

"OMG! He's awake?! YES!" AJ said leaving Kaitlyn confused at her door. She skipped back to her room; she couldn't wait to wake Dolph up.

"BAAAABBBBYYYY!" She yelled coming into the room. Dolph still had the covers over his head, and he didn't budge from her screaming. "Ziggy wake up! Cody was up! He actually was the only one out of the four of you to be awake. So this means, you lost the bet, and now you have to get up!" Still, he didn't budge. "Ok look, I'm going to take a shower. When I'm out, you HAVE to get up, ok?" Still, no answer. She glared at him, knowing he didn't see it.

She took her shower and got out, taking extra time to make sure he got every little moment of sleep he had left. When she was done, she came out of the bathroom … he hadn't moved. This was getting irritating. He lost the bet, so now he had to get it up!

"Dolph Ziggler! Get your blonde headed, six foot, stealing the show, Britney Spears loving, twitter obsessed, perverted, sarcastic, Money in the Bank Contract having self up right this second!" AJ was out of breath. That took a lot of energy to say.

All he could do was groan. He mentally cursed Cody. "Call Kaitlyn's room please."

"What? Why?" AJ said confused.

"You'll see, just call her room please." Dolph said flipping his hand out from under the blanket, waiting for her to place the phone in his hand. AJ called and Cody picked up.

"Hey Cody, it's AJ. Dolph wants to talk to you." When Cody said alright, she passed the phone to Dolph.

"Cody?" Dolph mumbled.

"Yea dude?" Cody said.

"Please know that everything I'm about to say, I'm saying out of lack of sleep." Dolph mumbled into the phone. He could tell Cody wasn't catching on, so he just went on. "Cody, what time did you wake up this morning?"

"Umm like 8, I went to get me and Kaitlyn some breakfast from downstairs at about 9:15 though."

"Sounds great," Dolph said with sarcasm. "Well let me tell you a little story. Is that ok?"

"Sure man, but where is this going?"

"Trust me, you'll find out very soon." Dolph said and took a deep breath. "So, there were these four couples right? And they all went to work yesterday. But, the girlfriends surprised the guys with a trip to Hawaii. They all left, right after work and got to the hotel at 4 o'clock in the morning." AJ climbed into bed next to him on top of the covers, looking at him. "So boyfriend A, B, and C were all tired, and didn't want to get out of bed. But boyfriend D wanted to be all hyper at 8 o'clock in the morning. Boyfriend A's girlfriend wanted to get out bed at 9, so they made a bet. And if boyfriend A, won that bet, he could sleep as long as he wanted to, but if he lost, he had to get out of bed. Are you catching my drift yet Cody?"

Cody was silent. He knew what was coming after this.

"So just know I WILL be giving you a death stare this entire trip, and if you just so happen to wake up under the ocean, just know you brought this all on yourself." Dolph said still laying on his stomach.

"Dude, I am so sorry!"

"No! Don't be sorry now! It's too late now!"

"I swear, I'll stay in bed all day tomorrow, just don't put me under the ocean!" Cody said playing as though he was scared of Dolph's threat. "Dude, calm down, get out of bed, and actually live alright? I'll see you later?"

"Trust me Cody, you'll see me. But not how you want to see me. Remember, boyfriend A, B, and C are wrestlers too. You're one Zig Zag and one Brogue Kick away from Trouble in Paradise." Dolph said slowly and with a really deep voice that AJ was finding very attractive. "Bye Cody." Dolph hung up the phone and took a really deep breath. He closed his eyes, and pushed himself up into pushup position and opened his eyes again. Dolph groaned and moved his legs so he was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Thank you." AJ said coming up behind him wrapping her arms around him.

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah." Dolph said getting up and walking into the bathroom. After he had gotten ready and all the couples were up, they decided to all meet in the buffet area for breakfast.

"You guys hungry?" Layla asked with a smile. "The food looks delicious."

"I'm pretty sure everyone is hungry except for Cody and Kaitlyn." Sheamus said glaring at Cody.

"I've said sorry like a thousand times!"

"Your apologies don't give me a couple more hours of sleep!" Kofi said glaring at Cody too.

"I want to say this now, so I don't offend anyone today." Everyone turned to Dolph. "I am now functioning on 5 hours of sleep. I do not function great, on 5 hours of sleep. I will most likely be more sarcastic and more offensive to you all than I normally am. I will say and do things un-Dolph like today, and I want to apologize in advance." Dolph said being dead serious. "Now … I unfortunately am awake," he said glaring at Cody, "and I'm not going to just sit around a table singing Kun-Bah-Ah with you and acting like I don't want to be in bed right now. I am going to eat. So, if you will excuse me." Dolph left the table to go get him food, and everyone's head shot to AJ.

"Well now we know he's not a morning person." Cameron said.

"He just doesn't like being woken up … especially, when he hasn't had a lot of sleep." AJ said in his defense. "Well, come on, let's eat." AJ said with a real smile as she got up from the table.

Everyone followed and went to go get food, hoping this would give them energy to make it through the day. When they all made it back to the table, they went around the table playing truth or dare.

"Dolph, truth or dare?" Sheamus asked him.

"Truth." Dolph wasn't the type of guy to be scared to say dare, but he was too tired to do anything right now.

"Alright. Is it true that if you had to choose between sleep and AJ right now, you would choose sleep?" Dolph's eyes shot up. Hearing those words were like asking him could he live without his zebra sleep mask and his lucky blazer. It was impossible to answer.

"Uhhhh,"Dolph said honestly thinking about it. All he wanted was a couple more hours of sleep and he would have been fine.

"You actually have to think about that?!" AJ said her eyes widened. She looked offended, and it was probably because she actually was.

"Yes! It's a tough question!" Dolph said acting like a little kid. "I have you forever, I just want a couple more hours of sleep." He was pouting.

"Ziggy, stop being a baby." AJ said and pecked him on the lips and started playing with his hair. "If you really want some more sleep you can go back to bed."

"REALLY?!" Dolph said excited.

"Yeah. I'd rather you awake and happy, than half asleep and whining." AJ said still playing with his hair.

"Babe, you honestly don't understand the things I want to do to you right now." Dolph said with a smirk.

"Where did that even come from?! I didn't even reference that anywhere in the sentence!"

"The hair … your running your hands through my hair … and you want me to calmly leave the table?" Dolph said seeing the smile grow on her face.

"Go to sleep! I'll be up there in about an hour."

"I swear I will make this up to you, babe!" He said kissing her. "When I wake up, I'm all yours."

"Oh really?" she said lifting up her eyebrows and gave him another kiss.

"Yes, really." He said as he kept kissing her.

"Ok that's enough! Just go already!" Cody said which made Dolph instantly look at him.

"Well then!" Dolph said as if he was offended. He kissed her one more time. "I'll see you later babe. Love you."

"Love you too Ziggles." Dolph got up and glared at her. She laughed at his reaction, knowing she would get a reaction from him.

"I'm too tired to respond to that." He said as he left.

Dolph went straight upstairs to the room and literally undressed as he made his way over to the bed. He got in, got comfortable, and pulled the covers over his head and he was out. Back downstairs at the table, there was different story going on.

"AJ why did you let him leave?" Cameron asked surprised.

"He was tired. If I made him stay, I'd be a total hypocrite. Anytime he drags me out the bed and he sees I'm not functioning, he lets me go back to bed. Plus, he was whining and I hate when he whines. It makes me feel like his mom and not his girlfriend." AJ said making a face at the thought of being his actual mom.

Cameron and Layla looked at their boyfriends and then looked back at each other. They sighed and at the same time said "Go." Kofi and Sheamus shot up and kissed them and quickly made their way back to their rooms.

That left all the girls … and Cody. "Hey babe, that leaves you to carry our bags when we go shopping!" Kaitlyn said to him in an excited tone.

Cody mentally cursed himself for not being tired, and waking up so early. "Yea … that's what I'm here for." He said trying to sound excited.

It actually was longer than an hour before AJ got back to the room. They had been out shopping and she didn't get back until about 3 o'clock. Once she got back, Dolph was still under the covers sleeping, but he was on her side of the bed and she wanted to lie down and watch TV. So she wouldn't disturb him, she changed into some lounging clothes and got on his side. Thirty minutes into her show, Dolph rolled over and was on laying on her slightly. For such a big bed, he was really close. She didn't mind of course, but he was sleep, so there was nothing to do. Once again, she started playing with his hair out of habit as she watched her show.

Dolph started making soft noises in his sleep as she ran her fingers through his hair. She knew soon he would be awake, because now he was moving around a lot. About twenty minutes later she had to pee. "Ziggy move, I need to use to bathroom." Instead of moving away, he pulled her closer. "Seriously, I have to pee." She said looking up at him. He was still holding her close, and wouldn't let go. "I'm going to pee on you." With that, he finally let her go. She got up and went to the bathroom.

"BAAAAABBBEEEEE!" Dolph yelled from the bed. He no longer just had his head and arms from up under the cover; he was out from the waist up. Dolph repeatedly called her until she came out of the bathroom.

"Are you bleeding or dying?" AJ asked. "I'm pretty sure anything you are about to say or ask me could've waited until I was don't peeing Dolph!"

"BAAAABBBEEEE!" Dolph yelled again. His voice was still muffled because he was lying on his stomach, with his head under a pillow. "BAAA-" he was interrupted by AJ pushing on his side, making him roll over onto his back.

AJ climbed on the bed and crawled over to him. He pulled her close and she cuddled close to him. There was a brief moment of silence before Dolph finally spoke up.

"My dad cheated on my mom when I was 14." He blurted out, and she looked up at him. "I came home one day from school with my brother Briley and I found him in bed with my science teacher. For the life of me I still can't figure out how she made it to my house before I did." AJ just kept looking at him, listening to every word he said. "I didn't know what to do. I worshipped the ground my dad stood on, but my mom didn't deserve that. So, I told her. She exploded, and she threatened to leave my dad when she confronted him. He denied everything, and said that I was making it up."

Dolph's voice started to crack, as though he was getting choked up. "I told my mom to ask Briley because he was there, and he denied seeing anything. He said that he didn't know what I was talking about and I should stop lying on dad." That's when it happened. A tear fell from his eye. AJ wiped it away with her thumb, and he looked at her. "That's why me and Briley aren't on good terms, and why I didn't want them to meet you. But, of course, being the push over that I am, they convinced me to let them be front row at that house show so they could see you. And then, again, being an even bigger push over, I let them come back stage and actually talk to you."

"You're not a pushover baby. You just wanted to be the bigger person." AJ said trying to make him realize he wasn't a pushover. "Can I ask you something?"

"Stop asking me can you ask me things! Of course you can ask me stuff!" Dolph said.

" ….. what … what about your mom?" AJ asked, waiting on whether or not he would freak out on her.

"She believed my dad and started treating me different. I was known as the liar in the household now, so anything I would say she would say 'are you sure that's what happened? Or is this just one of your stories?'. It honestly hurt my feelings to hear that come from her. You always expect your dad to be tougher on you, and for your mom to be the emotional one. The parent that always goes easier on you than dad will; sometimes it's the other way around depending. But, to have your dad sit there, and lie, and then your mom belittle you, and make you feel like you're worthless … it's … tough."

There it was again. A tear. He was letting it all out. He laughed a little. "That's not even the worse part. When I was 18, on my graduation day, my science teacher went up to my mom and told her how incredibly sorry she was, and that she never meant to be a home wrecker. She said she was surprised I graduated with the grades I got; she thought I would have turned out worse because of the family drama going on inside our household." AJ now saw that was a sarcastic laugh. She gave him a smile letting him know she was listening.

"My mom tried apologizing to me for being so nasty to me for the last 4 years. But I mean how does that sound? I believed my lying husband over my son when he tried telling me that he cheated … again!"

"Again?" AJ asked not knowing what that meant. She got under the covers, cuddling even closer to him.

"Yea, again. He had cheated on her like 5 times before with 4 different women. She says she believed him because he swore on his kids that he would never do it again." Dolph's voice got soft. "Well, that shows how much he cared about us." Another tear fell.

"Ziggy look at me."AJ said to him. He looked at her without hesitation. "You are a great person. And you have every right to be upset or to not forgive them, but you have to tell them how you feel." Dolph gave her a confused look. "In order for you to move on from this, and it not bother you, you have to tell them how you really feel. But you can't come into the conversation ready for confrontation, you have to express yourself, and then hear what they have to say."

"Babe, I don't think that's going to work."

"I hate to bring this back up, but remember what happened with Nikki? You let it all out to her, the person that had caused that pain and you felt better after. Same thing with your parents, they hurt you, so they should be the ones hearing what you have to say and how you feel."

He kissed her. That was his thank you to her. She was perfect. She knew exactly what to say and how to make light out of a really dark situation. She deepened it, holding onto his hair, running her hand throw it. Just as they were getting deep into the kiss, there was a knock at the door.

"Guys! It's us." They heard from the hallway. By that AJ knew it was just the girls. She looked up at him, he nodded and she went to get the door.

"Hey guys, what's up?" She said letting them in.

"Cody, Sheamus, and Kofi went to the pool room. They thought you were sleeping Dolph, you want me to call them and tell them to wait for you?" Kaitlyn asked.

"No. I'm fine for now. Thanks though." He answered with a smile.

"Did we interrupt something?" Layla asked.

"Huh? Oh, uh … no." AJ said looking at Dolph who had cuddled up to a pillow since she wasn't in bed anymore. He was looking at her, while they went over to the couch across the room.

"OMG! We so interrupted something! Sorry! We can leave!" Kaitlyn said.

"No! Seriously, it was nothing." AJ said shrugging at them, but looking back at Dolph who had a smirk on his face. "So what were you guys wanting to do?"

"Oh, we thought we would just come here and talk some girl talk with you." As Cameron said that, they all turned and looked at Dolph.

"Don't worry, I'll be sleep in like two minutes." Dolph said covering himself with the covers.

"Trust me; he'll be sleeping in literally two minutes. Whenever the covers are over his head, that always means he's about to be knocked out cold." All the girls laughed. They talked for about an hour and a half before the guys came back.

The guys were starting to get worried. Something was wrong with Dolph. He shouldn't still be this tired.

"Are you sure Dolph's okay, I mean, can he even breathe?" Cody asked look over at AJ.

"It's his way of blocking out the world while he's sleep. Just leave him alone, he's fine." AJ said.

"Can I mess with him?" Sheamus said. AJ's head shot to him with terror in her eyes.

"Nooooooo. Do not, and I repeat, do not mess with him while he's sleep. That is a definite no-no when it comes to surviving to see the next day of your life." AJ said warning him.

"Come on, you're being over dramatic. He's a man; he can handle a little guy fun." Sheamus said getting up from his seat on the floor.

"Don't whine to any of us when he snaps at you." Kaitlyn said. She knew AJ was telling the truth. She had slept over at AJ's house multiple times and she tried playing a trick on Dolph while he was sleep. "Let's just say I know from experience that messing with him while he's sleep and then him waking up from it isn't a good combo."

"What happened babe?" Cody asked.

"You'll find out very soon." She said as she saw Sheamus getting closer to Dolph. He started poking him and calling him Ziggles. Everyone was whispering for him to stop before Dolph woke up, but he kept going. All of a sudden, you heard a very deep groan come for under the covers. It scared Sheamus to the point he couldn't even move. Everyone once again was yelling at him telling him this was his last chance to get out of there alive.

Dolph rose from under the covers as if he was The Undertaker, and it felt like he was. All you saw was a well tanned, bleach blonde man pounce on Sheamus. It came out of nowhere! Dolph had sat there glaring at him for at least a minute before pouncing.

"I swear if you ever wake me up, EVER again, I will personally pull you out of bed and chain you to a coffin, and bury it six feet under. Do you understand me?" Dolph said as he was still on top of Sheamus holding his throat. He wasn't holding it tight enough to kill him, but Sheamus had turned a hard shade of red.

"Babe stop!" AJ said coming over and trying to break it up.

"What I suggest you do when I let you go, is get as far away from me as possible. Aka pouncing distance. Get out of pouncing distance, and you might actually live to see beautiful Hawaii tomorrow alright?" Sheamus nodded and he let him go, getting back in bed as though there was nothing wrong with what he just did.

It was silent besides Sheamus trying to get his breathing back. No one knew what to say or do. It was perfect for Dolph though, he had complete silence to go back to sleep.

"Ummm, I think that's our cue to leave." Kaitlyn said.

"Wait. So he pounced on you, threatened you, and then all at once was holding your throat?" Cody said referring back to Kaitlyn saying she knew what Dolph was going to do to Sheamus from personal experience. "That is unacceptable!" Cody charged over to the edge of the bed, ready to yank the covers off Dolph's head.

"Cody, do you really want to see what I will do you if you yank that cover off this bed?" Dolph said from under the covers, making Cody jump. "AJ how do you deal with this?!"

"I basically just ignore his little tantrums and pretend to act like they're cute." AJ said shrugging.

"Excuse me?" Dolph said taking the cover off his head. "You pretend I'm cute. That's what always leads to … well … I am taken aback by that, and I will not stand for it."

"You're not standing at all! You're lying in bed at 5 o'clock in the evening like a little baby." AJ said walking over to the bed. "My little baby boy."

"I'm not having this conversation when I could be sleeping. You enjoy watching me sleep, because that is the closest I'm going to let you get to me for the next 24 hours." AJ made a 'oh really?' face and everyone looked at her. AJ quietly pointed towards the door and they all knew what that meant.

Once everyone left, Dolph was already back to sleep. AJ went to the bathroom and changed into something that she knew drove him crazy. She came out and got up under the covers with him and got as close as she could. He stirred and ended up on his side facing her. She repeated what she had done earlier that day and she started kissing him. This time, he kissed her back, wrapping his arm around her.

"I thought I couldn't get any closer than watching you sleep?" AJ said teasing him.

Wait. Wait a second. Was she? No she couldn't be. Dolph wasn't ready for this type of feeling. Well, he was ready, but it came earlier in this teasing process than he expected. She was … naked. Dolph gulped.

"I ummm … I was just … because they were … and you … I can't do this." Dolph said looking over her flawless body as he spoke. They always teased about how she had washboard abs, and well toned legs. But that was an understatement … she was perfect.

"Uh huh … and?" AJ said slowly reeling him in.

"Can you put some clothes on? I can't talk to you without clothes on." Dolph said not looking at her.

AJ was offended. Was there something wrong? He always used to tell her how perfect she was. Was she not perfect anymore? "What?"

"Babe, it's just -"

"No … I … I understand." She said getting out the bed and rushing into the bathroom.


	6. Love and War

*A/N: I have no idea why, but I love when they argue and make up! Well, I write it, but I like how creative I get when it comes to their arguments. Plus, I'm trying to get all arguing and whatnot out of the way so they can be a strong couple. So, yes, this chapter will be the beginning of an argument. Spoiler: They're not going to break up, so get your little shipper hearts ready for the best make up ever. It might even be a tear-jerker; I'm not sure how deep the argument will be though. You'll see as you read, I hope you enjoy! Make sure to comment and tell me what you think.*

This was not going well. When AJ came out of the bathroom, she was on the phone with Kaitlyn saying she would meet her somewhere. Dolph got out of bed and stopped her as she reached the door. AJ looked at him and stopped.

"Hey Kaitlyn, let me call you back alright? I forgot to tell Dolph I'm leaving." AJ soon hung up and looked at him. "Do you need something?" she asked looking down.

"You." He said plainly. "The only reason I told you to put clothes on was because this was going to be our first time."

"What are you talking about?" AJ said.

"In Hawaii. Remember when we first starting dating and you said you wanted your fist time in a romantic place to be special and not just out of the blue. Well, that was out of the blue, and I didn't want to ruin your first time for you." Dolph said with those loving eyes she loved. He remembered. She had even forgotten, so the fact that he remembered meant the world to her.

"You remembered?" AJ asked while slowly building a smile.

"Yes, of course and you don't know how hard it was for me to resist you just then." Dolph admitted.

"Baby … I would total pounce on you right now, but I told Kaitlyn I would meet her downstairs for some dinner and a swim with the rest of the girls."

"Ok, just make sure you're not too tired when you get back. I need to tell you something." Dolph said with a smile.

"What is it about?" AJ asked curiously.

"Don't worry; it's totally a good thing." Dolph said reassuring her that nothing was wrong.

AJ couldn't take it; she reached up and pulled him down for a kiss. Was she going to miss dinner? No. She would eventually stop kissing him. Was she going to miss a really nice swim? No. But she wished he could be there. It was an all girls things, since most of the guys went out for pool earlier.

"So, what made you a little late tonight Ms. Lee?" Layla asked when they got to the pool after dinner.

"What do you mean?" AJ said turning her head because she felt herself starting to blush.

"You know exactly what I mean. What took you so long to get down here for dinner?"

"I was ummm-" She was interrupted by someone picking her up and running with her and jumping in the huge pool. She had goggles on so right when she got underwater, she saw that it was … Dolph.

"Babe! What are you doing here?" she said finally coming back up for air.

"Do you not want me here?" Dolph asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes of course! But, you just came out of nowhere!"

"That's what I do babe. I swoop in unexpectedly … kind of like Superman." Dolph said with cheeky smile.

"You definitely are my Superman Ziggy." She said getting closer to him in the water and biting her lip. He moved closer to her and was about to kiss her when she splashed him and went underwater.

"You're such a tease!" Dolph said going after her.

Eventually the other guys came down and got in too. They were having a lot of fun until Cody asked Kaitlyn what her pants size was.

"Excuse me?" Kaitlyn said insulted.

"What? I just wanted to know!" Cody said in his defense.

"How do you not know what size I am?" Kaitlyn asked bewildered. "I bet every other guy knows his girlfriend's sizes except you!"

"Kaitlyn, it's not something important that was key information when I first started dating you!"

"Kofi! What are Cameron's sizes?" Silence. "Sheamus?" Kaitlyn was shocked that nobody knew their girlfriend's sizes. Everyone had forgotten about Dolph and AJ because they weren't saying anything. They were sharing a lounge chair making out. "Dolph?"

"Huh?" Dolph said pulling away from AJ.

"What are AJ's sizes?" Kaitlyn asked with a serious face.

"It depends. Like clothes, or shoes?"

"Anything. Just name a one of her sizes in something she wears." Layla said.

"Well, in shoes she's a 4 in women but a 2 in men. Sometimes she has to get her Chucks from the men's department."

"Awwe! Ziggy, I didn't even know you knew that!" AJ said looking up at him with a really big smile.

"I've been shopping with you enough times to know at least your show size." Dolph said nonchalantly.

All eyes went onto the other guys who didn't know the sizes. A huge argument broke out, which made Dolph and AJ leave unnoticed.

"Hey Ziggy? What would you say your best memory is with me?" AJ said as she walked into the room with her boyfriend.

"You're going to make me pin it down to one? It depends really. Like recently? Or overall? Or with others around? Be more specific."

"How about recently?" AJ said with little thought.

"When I gave you that ring." Dolph said with a smile, coming up to her and kissing her.

"It's a very lovely ring, and I love it." She said looking down at it.

"A beautiful ring for a very beautiful girl."

"You're so corny babe, but I'll let it slide this time because it was cute." She said lying across the bed. "This bed is huge." Dolph went over and laid beside her, just looking at her. "Didn't you say you wanted to talk about something?"

"Oh yea! I totally forgot. It's really not important though." Dolph said sitting up on his elbows.

"Anything you have to tell me is important to me."

"You really want to know?" he said getting up and laying over her. She nodded with a smile. "I love you."

"That's what you had to tell me?" She asked not sure if that was it or not.

"Mhmm. I just wanted to make sure you knew."

"Of course I know that. And I love you too, never forget it." AJ said kissing him.

He pulled away first. "Babe -"

"This is all the romance I need Ziggy." She said with those big eyes staring right at him.

"Whatever you say babe." He said kissing her, and from there … it was all she wrote.

AJ was sleeping soundly, and Dolph was already up and dressed. They had had a long night, and he didn't want to wake her up. He really didn't want to leave, just in case she woke up and he wasn't here. But they had no drinks in the fridge and he was thirsty. He hesitated, but finally left, knowing he would be back in a couple minutes.

About five minutes later, she woke up. The first thing she saw was the beautiful view they had from their room, but there was something missing. Dolph always slept with his arm around her, and his arm wasn't there. She turned and saw that he was gone. All that was left was the indention he had made in the bed. Did he leave her? No, he would do that. He had to be in the bathroom or something.

AJ got out of bed, wrapping the sheets around her, and went into the bathroom to find it empty. Her robe was in there and some spare clothes, so she put all that on. This was weird; Dolph always loved being there when she woke up in the morning. She went out into the hall and looked both ways. She checked everywhere she thought he would be, but still no Dolph. Finally, she gave up and went to Shayla's room.

"Hey Layla, are you busy?" she asked as Layla opened the door.

"No, we were just laying down watching TV. Do you need something?" Layla asked nicely.

"No, I was just coming by … have you seen Dolph?" She asked out of the blue.

"Since last night? No. AJ it's like 8 in the morning, why are you guys even out of bed?"

"I woke up and he wasn't there. So, I've just been looking for him." AJ said putting her head down.

"It's alright; he's probably going to surprise you with breakfast in bed or something." Layla said trying to cheer her up.

"Yea, you're right. I'll see you later chica!" AJ started heading back to her room, when she overheard a girl on the phone.

"Dolph said he would love to meet you! Yea, he said we could go on a double date, and everything!" The girl said excited.

AJ was confused. Dolph hadn't told her about a double date.

"He said he can't wait to meet you! Girl, I swear! I'm not joking! Now hurry up and get on the fastest plane to Hawaii! He leaves tomorrow, so you HAVE to be here!" The person on the other side of the phone must have been just excited as her, because she started screaming and ran off. Dolph was going on a double date with someone else? How could he do this to her? Why would he do this to her? She quickly made her way to the room trying her best to not shed a tear.

When she got back to the room Dolph was there, laid out on the bed eating bacon. He heard the door open and he shot up and met her at the door. "Hey babe! Where have you been this lovely Hawaiian morning?" Dolph was all smiles and all AJ could do was keep her head down. "What's wrong? Is it because I wasn't here when you woke up? I'm sorry I was -"

"I know what you were doing Dolph." AJ said in a harsh tone.

"Babe, what's wrong? Who got you in a bad mood?"

"YOU!" AJ screamed at him and walked past him, getting back in bed.

"What? What did I do?" Dolph said following her to the bed, but lying on top of the covers.

"Nothing. Just leave me alone." AJ said turning her back to him.

Dolph didn't know what to do or where this was coming from. "What happened from the time you woke up until now that's got you so pissed at me?"

"You did something I never would have expected you to do. I never thought you were the type of person to do something like this to me. But I guess I was wrong, you -"

"What are you even talking about?!" Dolph said utterly confused.

"I never thought you would lie to me." AJ said her voice trailing off. "Just leave me alone. I don't want to fight about this right now." Dolph got up off the bed and started heading towards the door.

"And what I am supposed to do while you 'don't want to fight'? Act like everything is fine, when I know you're mad at me for the stupidest reason possible?" AJ's head shot up and she looked at him in disbelief. "I honestly haven't lied to you during our entire relationship. I've been an open book except for the stuff we had problems with before. But now you know that stuff, so I don't see the problem."

"It's not stupid Dolph!" AJ said getting up and getting in his face.

"Selfish move babe, that's a really selfish move." Dolph said shaking his head.

"And what exactly am I being selfish about?" AJ said with a glare.

"We're in Hawaii and you want to start a fight, and then not even tell me what we're fight about. Now I can't even leave here and enjoy myself … thanks." He said with a fake smile and left.

AJ groaned and changed her clothes. She needed to get this off her head for now, so she was going to go to the pool where she knew everyone would be. Even Dolph was going to be there, but for the past week, they had mastered the art of ignoring each other. She got down there and saw everyone including Dolph. She looked his way, and he got up and went to where the guys were, about to throw Cody in the pool against his will.

"What's wrong with him? He's been acting all snappy ever since he came down here." Cameron asked AJ.

"I don't know what's wrong with him. Ask him, he's like ten feet away." AJ said setting her stuff down.

"Ok? Hey Dolph! Come here please!" Cameron said confused at her behavior.

"Yea Cam?" Dolph said coming over.

"What's wrong? You seem snappy today."

"Ask AJ, she's the one who made me snappy." He said making a face and looking over at her. AJ didn't say anything; she kept reading her new WWE Magazine as if they weren't talking about her. "Oh I'm sorry; she's in a bit of a funk today. She's been making accusations all morning so she might be a little worn out." Dolph said sarcastically. "Is that all you need?"

"You know what I need Dolph?" AJ said putting her magazine down and getting in his face again.

"Yes dear?"

"I want you to for once be a man and just admit to what you did!" AJ said crossing her arms. "I've given you all morning to come to me and tell me, but you want to keep it hidden down in that vault of secrets you have."

"First, I don't have any secrets. Second, I still have no clue what you were talking about. Third, maybe if you'd tell me what you're upset about, we wouldn't have to be doing this right now. Oh wait, I forgot, you want me to leave you alone because you weren't 'ready' for this fight. So AJ let me ask you something, are you 'ready' for this fight now?" Dolph said using air quotes every time he said 'ready'. This started getting everyone's attention and not just their group of friends. Everyone at the pool was now staring at them.

"So you honestly don't know what you did?" AJ asked.

"Nope." Dolph said simply.

"So I heard from a very reliable source that you were going on a double date tonight. When were you one, going to tell me? And two, why? Why would you cheat on me, right in front of my face? Right here on a small island where I could easily find out. I thought you were better than that Dolph!"

"What are you talking about?! I'm not going on any 'date' today! I have nothing to do today actually." Dolph said not knowing what she was talking about. "And who is your reliable source? They need to be punched in the face … pronto."

"I heard her say that you guys were going on a double date tonight or tomorrow!"

"You _heard _that I was going on a date tonight? You weren't told that, you _heard _it? And you actually believed it?" Dolph said with a laugh.

"I don't see what's funny about this. And yes I believed it because it's not like she could have been talking about someone else! What other Dolph do you know on this island?" AJ said sticking by her original anger. She wasn't letting this go … she knew it was too good to be true that Dolph only wanted her.

"Ok, well if you don't see what's funny about this then I can't help you babe." Dolph said still chuckling.

"You're lying. I knew it would be too good to be true." AJ said raising her voice. "You promised. You promised when you gave me this ring that no matter what, you'd love me and ONLY me! This isn't what I envisioned you doing to prove that to me." AJ said pointed at the ring on her finger.

Dolph stood there in disbelief. He had a ring too, and he wore it proudly. If it was up to him he would never take it off, but sometimes he had to. Where was this coming from? Where did she hear this?

"Babe -"

"Babe? Funny how you can pick and choose when you want me to be babe. I'm only babe when you're not mad at me, or you're getting something from me." AJ didn't mean any of this, but she said it anyway. She was upset.

"I find it funny how you can pick and choose when you want to be nice and adorable AJ, and then turn around and be angry and hurtful AJ. So first I cheated on you, then I'm a liar, and now I'm using you?" He shook his head.

"Your words, not mine." Her arms were still crossed over her chest and she noticed Dolph wasn't as close to her anymore. "You know the one thing I'm surprised by is that you're lying about it. I wouldn't have guessed after everything that happened to you as a kid, you would sit in my face and lie to me." Yes, she went there.

Dolph's head snapped at her and he moved back in her face. "Really? You're going there with me? Right here? Right now?"

"It's been there Dolph." AJ said still not backing down.

"I should have known. I should have known telling you that would be a bad idea. I thought you were ready to hear it, but you weren't. You weren't ready to take it like a mature adult would; you're going to throw it back up in my face." Dolph shook his head. "It hurt a lot when they did it, but I knew they didn't care. You supposedly cared about me, so that hurts me a lot for you to say that. But since you want to talk about the ring, let's talk about it. I gave that ring to someone I thought would cherish it, and would wear it with pride. And you did, until things went wrong. We have a misunderstanding and the first thing you do is throw bad situations back in my face like it doesn't still hurt, when you of all people know it does."

"I do cherish this ring. It's my baby and I never take it off!" She wasn't going to let him say that she didn't care about that ring, because it was far from the truth.

"During this whole argument, let's even go back to the first argument the day after your birthday; have I ONCE brought up Daniel? No. But the first chance you got, you just couldn't stop yourself from bringing Nikki up again. I know that anything even _surrounding _the topic of Daniel gets you upset, so why would you do that to me? Does it make you feel better? Does it help you sleep better at night knowing that you one-upped me by hurting my feelings?"

"Dolph you're blowing this way out of proportion!" AJ said finally realizing this was stupid.

"_I'm _blowing this out of proportion? You overheard someone saying they were meeting me today or tomorrow and you blew up! All of a sudden I'm a liar and a cheater and I use you." Dolph said backing away from her again. "When did you even find this so called 'reliable information' out?

"This morning when I was looking for you. I heard the girl on the phone talking to her friend about it. They said that you said you couldn't wait to meet!"

"That's what this is about?! Those were two of our fans! They heard we were hear and flew all the way from LA to come see us. They brought us a lot of t-shirts and different things we could wear on TV, so I said I would make it up to them by buying them dinner! I wasn't going to be there, I was just _paying _for it. She said she had to call her best friend and they would go to breakfast in the morning or something.

"Is that what really happened or is that just one of your stories?" She knew that would make him upset. AJ knew that what she was about to say could hurt his feelings so bad that he might not recover. But she could sense he was about to walk away from her, and she wasn't going to let him walk away that easily. "Your parents were right about you … you're a liar." Her eyes watered at her words knowing that this argument was close to an end.

Dolph stood there in disbelief that she would go that far. He knew that she knew that would hurt him more than anything else she could have said. "What happened to you?" He whispered and slowly backed away from her and finally turning around leaving. They had caused such a scene. AJ looked around to see her friends staring at her. The girls were in tears and the guys were shaking their heads at her. The strangers just went about their business, like nothing had happened. AJ stood there. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She was ashamed.

"Let's get you out of here." Kaitlyn said taking AJ by the arm and pulling her inside and upstairs.

"Let's go find the fourth musketeer." Sheamus said as they left to go find Dolph.

This was going to be a looooooong night.

"Dolph calm down man! It's not worth all this stress! She's just upset!" Cody said trying to calm Dolph down. He was throwing things around the room and screaming at them.

Dolph stopped, finally out of breath from his tantrum and hit his hand on the table. Breathe. That's all he needed to do. Breathe.

"This isn't the end of the world fella. You guys always pull through no matter what. You always do." Sheamus said picking his phone up and calling Layla.

"I always thought she was different, but that turned out to be wrong, didn't it?" Dolph said harshly.

"Hey Lay, where's AJ?" Sheamus asked when he finally got her on the phone.

"She's just laying her. Not moving. We were worried for a little that she wasn't breathing, but she's ok." Layla responded.

"Same for Dolph, except he's throwing stuff and screaming at us for no reason." Sheamus said which resulted in Dolph throwing a pillow at him.

"Sounds silent though, what is he doing now?"

"Other than throwing pillows at me, he's standing over the table with his fist bleeding from him punching it not too long ago. Let's not even talk about his breathing ratio. Is there a such thing as breathing too much?" Sheamus sounded like he was being funny about it, when in all actuality, he was worried.

"We brought her up here and tried to talk to her, but she hasn't said a word. It's like shes -"

"Woah! I have to go! Dolph just pounced on Kofi!" Sheamus said quickly hanging up. Layla pulled the phone away from her ear and looked back at the girls surrounding the bed AJ was in.

"How's he doing?" Kaitlyn asked.

"Not too good. Throwing things, his fists are bleeding, and he just pounced on Kofi … if that's what you call okay, than he's doing great!" Layla said with a sad face.

"AJ come on. Say something. Anything. You're always the one saying 'don't hold it in', so let it out sweetie." Cameron said rubbing her back.

"He's right …" AJ whispered.

"Who? And what is he right about?" Layla said trying to get her to open up.

"You guys technically are still together. You didn't break up, so this is just a minor setback, you'll get through it." Kaitlyn said.

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" AJ yelled. She got out of bed and walked over to the couch but didn't sit down. "I screwed up big time! I pushed him … I pushed him so far. It's so bad right now! I've pushed him passed his limits to be honest, and I don't know what to do! A simple 'I'm sorry' won't work. Dolph has always had a small temper problem, and I knew that from the beginning, but I did it this time. I pushed him too far this time." AJ paced. This wasn't how their vacation was supposed to go. They didn't do all this planning, just to get here, and half way through the trip have some more problems.

"AJ don't say that. You guys are the strongest couple I know. If you guys never fought, what kind of relationship would it be?" Kaitlyn said standing next to her.

"This is no longer a fight or an argument … this is war." AJ said looking around the room at their faces. "And from the looks of it, neither one of us are going to make it out alive."

Back with the guys, there was a totally different situation happening. They had finally pried Dolph off of Kofi and convinced him that punching holes into the walls wasn't healthy.

"Dude calm down!" Cody said.

"Calm down? It's gotten to the point Cody, where calming down is the LAST thing I want to do!" Dolph said angrily. His anger had gotten a mind of its own and Dolph wasn't thinking straight. "I have to leave. I need to get out of here."

"Where are you going? Pool room?" Cody asked.

"Where is Raw Monday?" Dolph asked in a hurry, walking over to his suitcase.

"Maryland, why?" Sheamus asked confused.

"Are you guys going to be there?" Dolph asked packing his things. They all nodded. "Well, I guess I'll see you in Maryland guys."

"Wait. You're leaving _Hawaii_?! No. No. No." Kofi said standing in front of the door. "You are not just hopping on a flight to Maryland."

"Fine. I will not hop on one. I will walk straight onto the flight like a normal person." Dolph said with an attitude. "I have no reason to be here anymore, my services are no longer needed, so I can leave."

"Your services are definitely still needed. You're the one in the group that knows what to say and when to say it to make the situation better. It's not going to be the same without you here Ziggles." Sheamus said with a straight face.

"I -" Dolph started.

"You're staying whether you like it or not so I suggest you just sit down and unpack your things … again." Kofi said being dead serious.

"I'm not staying! So just get out of the way!" Dolph insisted but Kofi wouldn't budge.

"Dolph, don't make us use extra enforcement." Sheamus said standing beside Kofi and Cody following.

"What are you … NO!" Dolph said realizing what that meant. They had a guy's night one time before and Dolph got bored and wanted to leave … so they locked him in the bathroom.

"Unfortunately Dolph … you've given us no other option." Cody said with a sad face.

"Ok fine. I'll get in bed and sleep, is that ok?" Dolph asked not really feeling like standing anymore.

"Alright … go ahead." Sheamus said gesturing towards the bed.

A few hours later, AJ was back in bed and sleeping. The girls just watched her. This was the only time she had looked peaceful since the fight down at the pool. Were they drifting? They had been getting in a lot of fights lately. What did that mean? Were they not right for each other anymore? Did they still love each other? What did all this mean?

"AJ wake up." Kaitlyn said shaking her a little. AJ opened her eyes and looked at her. "We're heading down for dinner. Kaitlyn could tell she was about to counter her statement. "And don't even say you're not hungry, because we know you are." She nodded and got up.

"I'm starving come on!" Layla said excited for dinner. The girls took the long way down to the buffet, passing AJ and Dolph's room. They heard noices and they stopped to listen.

"Dude get up! It's time for dinner and I'm hungry!" They could hear Kofi say from the inside.

"Leave me alone!" Dolph said angrily. "You told me I couldn't leave, so let me stay in bed!"

"Staying in here feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to solve anything Dolph." Sheamus said kind of getting tired of this whole thing.

"Ugh! You know what? I'm hungry! I'm not going to stay here and pretend to feel sorry for you, when this is all your fault in the first place dude!" Cody said making Dolph's head snap at him. Dolph got up and was about 3 feet away from Cody. "Yes, I said it! You know just as much as I do that AJ would be here with you right now if you weren't so bottled up about everything. This whole week of arguments has all been centered around you and your caged up ways. It's not fair that everyone had to see you two hurt each other because in the end all you guys want are each other. I might not have known you as long as Sheamus and Kofi, but I know you enough to know how you think and react to certain things. I'm telling you, one day you're going to be caged up about the wrong thing and she's not going to feel like arguing. She's going to be tired of the tears, and the stress of prying it out of you … she's just going to leave."

"Cody!" Sheamus yelled.

"What?! He needs to hear this! I completely understand how he feels, but he can't continue tomlive like this and expect her to be a boomerang and coming flying back everytime.

"Cody…" Dolph said in an angry low voice.

"What Dolph? Are you going to choke me how you did Kofi and Sheamus. That's your problem man, you always take your anger out on the wrong person. Right now at this moment, you're mad at AJ but you're taking it out on us … the people that are trying to help you."

"Is this what you call helping me?" Dolph said throwing Cody up against the wall. "And no, you don't understand. Does Kaitlyn want to know deep, personal things that you have pushed so far back in your head, even thinking about it makes your head hurt? NO! Does Kaitlyn always throw bad situations back in your face because she's upset? NO! Does your girlfriend Kaitlyn hurt your feelings by using something you told her in private against you in an argument in front of your friends and strangers? NO! So Cody you don't understand. Until you can answer all the questions with a yes, instead of a no, I suggest you leave me alone. And when you _can_ answer all those questions with a yes, then and only then, will I consider you badgering me, help."

"Come on man, let's just go eat." Kofi said grabbing Dolph's shoulder, pulling him towards the door.

Dolph was quiet and he looked down at his feet. Cody was right, and he had to be a man and admit that. "I'm sorry Cody. It's just been a really long day … week actually. I haven't slept any this week except for yesterday. Everything's just … rough right now."

"I understand dude, but you have to face it. Running away only makes it worse." Cody said giving Dolph a man-hug. Dolph reciprocated the hug and they let go.

"Let's go eat!" Sheamus said with his big Irish accent, opening the door to find all the girls standing there. "Well hello ladies, were you just passing by or were you eavesdropping?" They giggled, and they all left for dinner. Dolph already knew he wasn't going to sleep tonight. Whether this went good or bad, he wasn't going to sleep.

"So if you guys could have a dream match with someone who would it be with?" Layla asked starting up conversation.

"Definitely Taker." Sheamus answered immediately. "That's a match I'd love to experience."

"Babe, you'll get there, I believe in you." Layla said giving Sheamus a small ego boost.

"Dolph, here's our plane tickets and flight information. I was scared I was going t lose it so I wanted to give it to you." AJ said handing him an envelope. Dolph looked at her, but took the envelope.

"If I had to choose a dream match it would definitely be with Trish. She's everything I want to be." AJ got weird stares from everyone except Dolph who was looking down at his phone. "Like as a wrestler!" Everyone's faces softened.

"Dolph, what about you? Who's your dream opponent?" Kofi asked already knowing the answer.

"That's hard. I have a lot, but ummm maybe -"

"Stone Cold." AJ said with a small smile. "You always say no matter what you said in interviews, or anything, you always have wanted a match with Stone Cold."

Dolph reciprocated the small smile. "Yea. No matter what."

"Hey Dolph, what time does our flight leave here?" Dolph gave her a confused face.

"Ummm," he said opening the envelope. He pulled out the tickets, and noticed a letter for him in there. He looked up at her and back down at the tickets. "At 9 Sunday night."

"Oh ok." AJ said simply turning around getting back to the conversation.

After dinner, Dolph read the note as they all were in the elevator.

Superman,

It took so much out of me to get the nerve to write this letter to you. This should be our new form of communication because there's no yelling involved. Yes I addressed this letter to you as Superman, because that's what you are. You're my Ziggy when you're being cute and you're Superman when things aren't going right. What do you want from me Dolph? A hug? A kiss? At this point, I'm willing to do anything that could get you back to how you were Tuesday morning. Do you even remember him? That Dolph was the best boyfriend in the world. He made me want to have a birthday everyday of the year just so I could wake up to him how you were that morning. You know I'm left handed so my ring is getting in the way while I write. This ring means more to me than anything, and it means more to me because you're the one that gave it to me. Earlier I honestly thought you were going to ask for it back. Promise me no matter what, you'll never take it from me? And promise you'll never take yours off unless you're in a match or something? The girls left the room to go get lunch because I was sleep, so it's peaceful in here. Don't ever think I don't love you, because no matter what I always will. The things I said earlier … I'm extremely sorry for. Seeing you that mad and that hurt because of me, made me have a mental break down. I heard you were choking people and your fists were bleeding, and it's all because of me. Stop choking people ok? Violence is never the answer … especially if I'm not there to witness it. Love you baby, AJ.

Dolph looked at everybody who had exited the elevator and was looking at him. He moved out of the elevator, and started heading towards his room. Nobody said anything as they watched him go in the room and shut the door.

"AJ you want to come hang with us for a little bit?" Cameron offered.

"No. Thanks though, I'm tired and I just want to lie down." AJ gave them all a small smile and said goodnight before heading down the hall to her room. She came in and noticed Dolph was in the bathroom.

She changed into her pajamas and got in the bed and lay on his side. Dolph came out and changed and was about to get in bed when he finally noticed. "Here we are in a huge bed, and you chose my side to go to sleep on?" he said lifting an eyebrow.

"Yes. If I can't have you, I at least want your side of the bed." AJ said snuggling up to his pillow.

"You leave me no choice but to lay on you until you move." As he said that she giggled and he literally laid all the way on her. She pulled the covers over her face so he wouldn't see the huge amount of blushing she was doing for no reason. Dolph shook his head, still not moving.

AJ took the covers off her face and noticed him looking at her. "What?"

"Nothing." Dolph said with a half smile. She started running her hands through his hair, and he put his left hand on her cheek. She felt the cold of the metal on his ring hit her cheek.

"Promise?" AJ asked referring to her letter. She asked him to promise that he would not take it off unless he had to, and never to ask for hers back.

"Promise." He said simply.

"So technically you're not sleep anymore. And from what I remember you said you were all mine after that." AJ said smiling completely this time, and her hands had still not moving from his head.

"Your memory is correct Mrs. Money in the Bank." Dolph said getting up under the covers, but still laying on her.

"When did you come up with that one?" AJ asked with a laugh.

"I didn't. You did a while ago; I'm just simply recalling what I thought one of your tweets said." Dolph said as though he was thinking about it.

"Well Mr. and Mrs. Money in the Bank are going to have a really long night tonight."

"And what are we going to be doing my Mrs.?" Dolph said raising an eyebrow.

"Oh I don't know … a little bit of this," she kissed him.

"I like it, what else are we talking about?" Dolph asked with a laugh. He couldn't stop smiling at her.

"Oh we definitely have to some of this." AJ kissed him again rolling them over so she was laying on him.

"You're killing me babe." He called her babe. She hadn't been called babe all day without attitude or hurt. It was just … babe.

"Good." She said leaning down and kissing him again … and it was all she wrote.


	7. Last Day in Paradise

Their last day in Hawaii, it sounds so sad, but it started out the best way possible. This time when she woke up she saw opened her eyes and saw a really muscular chest. Ugh. She loved this man. He was what kept her going in this crazy world and he always made her smile. He had his arms around her like he usually does, but he was holding her tighter than usual. She didn't complain though, she actually enjoyed being this close to him.

"Ziggy." She whispered to him. "Ziggy." She called out again even though she knew he probably couldn't hear her. She sighed knowing he wasn't going to get up yet. Now how was she going to going to move? After about five minutes of not coming up with anything good, she gave up. She would just lay there in his arms until her woke up.

About thirty minutes later, AJ found herself waking up again. Once again, finding herself wrapped up with her boyfriend. She looked up and realized he was looking at her and she laughed. "You weren't kidding when you said you stare at me in my sleep."

"Not one bit. You're too cute when you're sleep babe." Dolph said with a soft small.

"Good morning Ziggy." AJ said looking over at the clock seeing it was 10:30.

"Good morning babe." He said moving around a little.

"What do you want to do today?" She said cuddling into his new position.

"I kind of wanted today to be a Mr. and Mrs. day."

"Oh really? I'm okay with that. A day for just me and you sounds great." AJ said with a smile.

"We could do how the cliché couples are in the movies. You could be wearing a peach dress, and have a red-ish, peach flower in your hair." Dolph said grinning at the thought.

"And what would you be wearing?"

"A random white t-shirt, and some … I don't even know."

AJ had a surprise for Dolph. He was always doing things for her, and it was her turn to make it up to him. It was her turn to prove she wasn't just going to sit back and let him be the only cute one in their relationship. After everything that had been going on, she wanted to make their last day in Hawaii as special as possible.

"Alright, let's get this party started!" AJ said getting up and running into the bathroom, only poking her head back out for him to see. "Today I will prove to you that I am the best girlfriend in the world."

"Babe, you already are the best girlfriend in the world."

"Thanks baby, but this makes it official." Giggling. Giggling is all Dolph heard as she fully went into the bathroom to get ready.

After getting ready, they started their day. AJ told Dolph that she was taking over for today and that he needed to relax, and enjoy the day. A few make-out sessions later, he finally agreed. She always knew what to do to persuade him. Breakfast was great. They didn't go to the buffet this time, instead going to a really fancy restaurant further down the beach. This was finally starting to feel like a vacation. They stayed there until at least 2 o'clock, just talking. Laughing at one another, and enjoying each other's smile.

"So where are we going now Boss Lady?" Dolph asked after leaving the restaurant.

"We are going to …." AJ said walking away.

"What?"

"Did you really think I was going to tell you?" AJ asked turning around with a smile. "Come on Superman, you're going to miss the surprise if you don't hurry up."

Dolph shook his head laughing, "Coming."

Once again, they were laughing, and kissing, and just enjoying each other's company. Holding hands walking down the beach had to be the most romantic thing you could do in Hawaii. If you're with the person you love, the fights, the tears, and the stress doesn't matter … as long as you had moment like this.

"_Babe I swear you're going to love this." Dolph said covering AJ's eyes leading her to what they would soon call "The Garden of Faith"._

"_Ziggy, you know I don't like surprises!"_

"_I know, I know, just a couple more feet." AJ and Dolph had been dating for 3 months and they were inseparable. If you saw AJ, you would most likely see Dolph attached at her hip or not too far behind, and vice versa. They were in the 'new and in love' stage in their relationship, and they were enjoying it._

"_Ok, here we are." He uncovered her eyes and revealed a picnic set up on an empty, quiet, but romantic part of the beach._

"_Awwe! Ziggy I love this! I knew this is where we were going! But you shouldn't have done all this." AJ said referring to their 3 month anniversary. AJ suggested it, saying it would prove they were serious. Dolph was hesitant, but agreed. He wasn't used to exchanging meaningful gifts, so this was new to him. Of course, him being himself, he covered it up with smiles and saying he was going to 'out-cute' her with his gift. "Hey can you give me second?" _

"_Huh?" Dolph said confused._

"_I'll be right back!" AJ said excited. But once she turned around, she was nervous. This gift would change their relationship completely. What if he rejected her? _

_AJ came back about 2 minutes later and sat down. "Ziggy, I swear, you really didn't have to do all of this."_

"_I wanted to. You're really special to me, and I just wanted you to know." All this was talk. Dolph was dying on the inside from his nervousness. He was hyperventilating and he was glad she hadn't noticed it yet. AJ was just now starting to know his facial expressions and when he was telling the truth or not, so she wasn't really worried about his panicking._

"_Baby, that's so cute. Can we exchange gifts first before we eat? I'm too excited to wait."_

"_Sure. Here you go." He said handing her a big box._

"_Oh My Gosh. I already know your present is better than mine." _

"_Just open it."_

_She started unwrapping it, and stopped. Was she? What? NO! Why is she crying? "Babe, what's wrong? You don't like it? I'm sorry, I should have just gotten you the bracelet like I originally planned, but then I saw the Chucks, and I knew you didn't have them, so I got them, hoping you would like them … but you don't." Dolph was rambling and didn't stop to take one breath during that whole rant._

"_No Ziggy, I love it. It's just …" her voice was trailing._

"_What is it?"_

"_I'm not used to someone caring so much about me. I already told you my story, and how I didn't have a lot. But you're different. Everyone else followed suit and treated me like I was nothing … but you're different." AJ was a very insecure girl. No matter how confident she or her character seemed, she was so insecure. Her insecurities always got in the way when it came to her "mental" relationship with Dolph. She always felt like he was doing things to use her like Daniel would, or try and humiliate her. She tried to hide it from him as much as possible, but it had started getting obvious after a while. She felt like he could never love her, or be with just her._

"_Babe you deserve it. It's not like you've done anything wrong in life. Everyone who treated you bad was missing out on a really great person."_

"_Thank you so much. That means the world to me for you to say that Ziggy." They were sitting down on the picnic blanket. AJ crawled over to him and laid her head in his lap. "Promise me no matter what … we'll be together?"_

"_Promise." Dolph smiled down at her and kissed her. "Now where's my gift?"_

"_Oh, I almost forgot, here you go." She handed him a wrapped box too, but hers was smaller._

"_Babe …" he said as he pulled out a note. He didn't understand. The note read: Follow Me. AJ stood up and held her hand out for him to grab. He took her hand, and led him about 30 yards away from their picnic. Dolph gasped. In the sand, there was writing. A long strand of writing that he started reading aloud with her following behind. "Together forever right? Well if so, Dolph Ziggler, will you do the honors of …" Dolph stopped right before the end. _

_AJ stood there. Not knowing what he was thinking and what he was about to do. He turned to her and looked her deep in the eyes. "Aren't you going to read the rest?" she asked him with an encouraging smile._

"_Will you do the honors of … making me your Cinderella because you're my Prince Charming." AJ smiled. She was so corny, but that's the best thing she could come up with for him. He was such a simple guy that material things weren't going to be the answer. _

"_Babe, that is so cute! I love it!" Dolph said grinning and wrapping his hands around her waist._

"_I'm glad you liked it." AJ felt so bad for Dolph. It wasn't fair to him (in her eyes), that he had to deal with someone like her. An insecure, little girl. Right now this was supposed to be a romantic moment. A moment you look back on and smile at. But right now she couldn't see herself doing that. She felt like this was a set up. He was trying to reel her in, and then humiliate her … like Daniel did._

"_I didn't like it AJ, I loved it!" she smiled and he kissed her. All her negative thoughts leaving within seconds._

"Remember the first time we went to the beach together?" AJ asked Dolph still holding his hand and walking down the beach.

"Of course, how could I forget?" Dolph replied with a smile.

"I don't know. I was just thinking about it and how nervous I was."

"Why were you nervous babe? I was the one that was sweating." He laughed at that even though it was true.

AJ laughed, which made them stop walking. "You were everything that I wanted you to be, and that scared me. I thought you were too perfect." She could see the smirk growing on his face. "But then you turned out to be just an average guy."

"Oh really?" Dolph said raising his eyebrows.

"No. You were my Mr. Perfect, and I thought it was too good to be true." AJ said standing in front of him now, putting her hand on his cheek. "You're my Ziggy Bear."

"That's a new one." Dolph said referring to 'Ziggy Bear'.

"Stay here for a second ok?" AJ said making Dolph look at her weird. "I'll be right back."

"Are you writing things in the sand again?" She turned around and looked at him. "I'm just asking … it was cute."

She shook her head and walked around a rock where he couldn't see what she was doing.

Dolph looked out towards the Hawaiian waters. Looking. Thinking about his life and how far he's come in his career and his relationship with AJ. In the first letters she wrote him, she said she wish she could go back and take back all the fights they had this week. But in all honesty, Dolph would change a thing. Sure, things could have been smoother this trip, but the emotions and the hurt would have eventually came out. So why not get it over and done with, and come out a stronger couple. He loved her with every fiber in his body and there was no denying that. All he could think about was their future. Him and her. Getting married one day and having kids didn't sound like a foreign language to him anymore. AJ brought out the side in him that made him always want to be a bigger and better person.

AJ came up behind him and jumped on his back. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing much."

"Come on! Tell me!" AJ whined.

"I was just thinking about me and you. How far we've come, you know? It felt like a battle for us to get together, we finally did, and then we had a huge blow out this week. But look at us now. Stronger than ever, loving each other more than we did before it all started." AJ got down off his back, and hugged him from the side. "I don't think I'd be the same person if I never was with you." This made AJ look up at him. He was looking out at the water, enjoying his surroundings. "I always ask myself, where would I be without AJ and I can't pin-point one thing. Of course, I still would be at work, showing off how I normally do, but what else? What would I be doing outside of work? I used to throw myself so much into work that I didn't have a life outside of it."

AJ kissed his cheek. "I ask myself the same questions. You don't understand how much you've changed me. I used to wake up in a cold sweat every night thinking about things going wrong. I had one the day of my birthday. But then I'd look over and there you were, still there laying next me. You didn't leave. You didn't belittle me and make me feel crazy. You were just … you, and I love every single thing about you." Dolph watched her as she looked out to the water. He gave a small smile knowing this was it. She was the one.

"What did you think about going wrong?" Dolph asked curious, looking at her face to see if she was okay talking about it.

"The one on my birthday was … its nothing." She said putting her head down.

"It's okay, you can tell me."

"I was in your locker room waiting for you to come back, and I went through your phone and saw you were talking to Nikki. You didn't tell me about it, I got mad; I threw your phone when you came back. I spazzed out and told you choose between me and her, because I wasn't going to be dumped by another Bella Twin."

"And then what?"

"That's when you woke me up to tell me happy birthday." She looked up at him with a tear in her eye. She blinked letting it cascade down her face. He wiped it away with his thumb, and smiled at her, making her smile. "I love you so much Ziggy."

"I love you so much more." Dolph said with a soft voice putting his forehead on hers. They stood there. Just standing with their eyes closed and pulled as close together as possible.

AJ pulled away first and gave him a kiss. It was meant to be a 'thank you' kiss, but it turned into so much more. It turned into a kiss that normally leads to … but that's beside the point. There they were. On a Hawaiian beach, kissing each other like it was their last time. But it wasn't, this kiss was leading them into their future together.

They needed air. No. it couldn't be over yet. Ugh. Stupid breathing. Fine. They pulled apart, breathing heavy. "This … this is our last day here." AJ said with a smile.

"I think this is the perfect way to end a vacation, don't you think Mrs.?"

"So that's what I am now? I dare you to say that in front of our friends and see their faces!" AJ said busting out with laughter.

"That's not a problem with me. You're going to be my real Mrs. one day, so why not test the waters and see what our friends think about it."

"Oh I am? I wasn't aware." She said looking away in a playful manner.

"You definitely are." He said as she leaned up to kiss him, but pushed him, and took off running.

"Catch me if you can Superman!" she said running throw the sand as fast as she could.

Dolph started chasing after her. She started giggling and screaming as she saw him getting closer. "Dolph! Don't tackle me!"

"You decided to run away, I'm so tackling you babe." Dolph said getting closer.

"Dolph stop! Don't!" she was getting tired, so she knew he was going to catch up to her. They weren't on the beach anymore; they were getting closer to the hotel. "Dolph! Stop chasing me! This was supposed to be cute and cliché like the movies! Not you harassing me!"

Dolph didn't say anything, he just kept chasing her. The only reason she was still ahead was because he gave her a 10 second head start, and she kept cutting corners and not running straight. She ran into the hotel lobby and straight to the elevator, hoping to catch it on its way up. Luckily she did, but right as the doors were about to close, Dolph slid in.

He raised his eyebrows and pushed her against the elevator wall. "Did you think hiding in the elevator would help?"

"Ummmm…." AJ wasn't breathing steady. Not because she had just finished running, but because his breath was so close. His breath was hot against her skin, and sent chills down her spine.

"AJ? Are you … nervous?" he said purposely talking really slow. "I mean, it's ok if you are. I'm just asking." Now he was playing games. This was his way of paying her back for running away. As he spoke, he kissed her neck or shoulder, each word he said. Which he knew drove her crazy.

"No. I'm just … uh … t-t-tired … from running." Dolph got her, he knew he did. "So, what else do you have planned for us Mrs.?"

"I have to … ask you … something."

"Alright, go ahead." He said going back to kissing her shoulder.

"No, I have to ask you at the … BEACH!" she squealed when she said 'beach' because he surprising kissed a ticklish spot on her neck.

The elevator door opened, but she couldn't leave. "Dolph, come on, let's go back, I have to ask you something."

"Why does it have to be at the beach?" he asked turning and pushing the button to go back down, but quickly standing back in front of her, trapping her again.

"Ziggy, can I breathe please?"

"Nope." Dolph said kissing her on the lips. "I don't want to leave tonight."

"Me either. Feels like this trip has gone by so fast." AJ said kissing him again. "But hey, at least we travel toge- uhhh never mind."

"What are you talking about?" Dolph and AJ always traveled together since their storyline started. Before she would always travel with Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn?

"I'm not traveling with you to Maryland today and tomorrow." AJ said making an 'I'm sorry' face.

"What? We always travel together. Who else are you going –" It hit him. Kaitlyn. "Kaitlyn?"

"Yeah, she asked me could we go to Maryland together, and … I said yes."

"Oh." Dolph backed up from her.

"Ziggy it's just today and tomorrow. I'll see you first thing when you get to the arena."

"How do you know you're getting there before me?" Dolph said tilting his head slightly.

"Oh, because my plane leaves at 7:30 tonight, instead of 9:00, like yours." AJ said still waiting for him to have a minor explosion.

"Wait. Its 5:30 right now, what time do you need to be at the airport?"

"I have to leave at 6."

"Then you have to go get your stuff now! When were you going to tell me this? I was thinking you were leaving with me. But you're not. You're going with Kaitlyn." Dolph said rolling his eyes. "Why are you going with her anyway?"

"She and Cody got in an argument, so I'm going to be her support system until we get to Maryland and they can talk."

"Alright, whatevs. Let's go get your stuff."

They got back to the room, and AJ quickly got all her stuff out the bathroom, and put it in her luggage. Dolph was sitting on the couch with his feet kicked up. Literally. He had been having trouble with his leg, so anytime he started feeling pain, he had to keep his leg elevated. AJ got done getting her stuff and it was only 5:45. She couldn't leave him pouting. So she went over and laid on him.

"Don't be mad. I'm going to see you tomorrow at like 3 o'clock." AJ said making him look at her.

"I'm not mad. I just wanted to travel with you. Especially because we have really long flights this time. Ugh! I'm going to be tired, and hungry, and thirsty, and you won't be there." Dolph said acting like a child.

"Baby, stop acting like a 5 year old. You are a grown man, who can get food if he's hungry, get some rest if you need to, and flirt enough with the flight attendant to get free drinks." AJ smiled down at him, and kissed him.

He kissed back, and she started to deepen the kiss. "Babe, we can't. You leave in like 10 minutes."

"I know." She said biting her lip.

"I'm not doing this right now babe." Dolph said moving around a little bit to get more comfortable.

"Are you rejecting me Dolph?" she said as her jaw dropped.

"No … well, it depends on how you look at it. If you want to be offended by it, then yes, I did. But if you understand that we don't have enough time, then no." Dolph said flipping through channels, not noticing her jaw dropped.

"Well I'm offended! Dolph you just rejected me!" AJ got off him and stood up by the couch.

"I didn't reject you babe, we just don't have enough time. I'm not rushing." Dolph said still not bothered by her being offended. He honestly didn't see the problem.

"We rush any other time, you need us to!" AJ said crossing her arms. This was actually offending her. What was the problem? His excuse this time couldn't because it was their first time, because it wasn't.

Dolph got up and kissed her. No, he kind of wasn't in the mood, but that wasn't really the reason. He liked their "sessions" as they called them, to be enjoyable and fierce. That couldn't happen if they did anything now. Dolph knew he would have to pull through and wait until tomorrow, and then he could pounce on her … and enjoy it. Of course, them being them, they took the kiss farther than it was meant to be. Let's just say, they didn't go all the way, but they did the most they could in the 8 minutes that they had left.

Suddenly, there was a bang at the door. _Kaitlyn_. "AJ are you ready?" It was 6:03, so Kaitlyn was late. Dolph and AJ took advantage of those 3 extra minutes. Not that much could happen, but a kiss can take you far.

"I have to go baby, I'll see you tomorrow, ok?" she said as she pulled her shirt over her head. "I'm coming Kaitlyn!" she yelled, hopeful Kaitlyn would hear her and stop knocking. "Tomorrow, ok?"

"Yea." He said giving her a small smile.

"Come on, it's tomorrow at 3 o'clock. You can make it until then without me." AJ said rubbing his bare chest.

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow at 3." Dolph said pecking her on the lips.

"That's it?" She said smiling and giving him a kiss she felt was appropriate. She laughed as she pulled away, "Bye Ziggy Bear."

"Bye my little spidermonkey." Dolph said walking to the edge of the bed. AJ's head snapped to him. He hadn't called her that in a long time and she missed it. She ran over to him, giving him one last passionate kiss. "I love you."

"I love you more." Dolph said pressing his forehead against hers.


	8. The Slapdown

Raw. It was every Monday, and Dolph and AJ always made sure to make an impact some type of way. Dolph … wasn't ready for that impact tonight. He didn't actually get to the arena until 3:15. His leg was killing him, and of course, Vickie had given him a match. He wasn't sure who it was against, he just knew he was scheduled for a match.

When Dolph got to the arena, he was exactly what he told AJ he would be: tired, hungry, and thirsty. He walked as fast as he could to catering, only to be stopped in the hall by almost every person to walk by. Today, the day where he _didn't _want to talk and mind his own business, was the day everyone wanted to talk to him. He got to catering, only to find almost every single superstar and diva in there. Dolph knew that's where everybody normally is before the show, but today wasn't the day he needed to be surrounded by too many people.

He got his food, and sat down by himself at a table. Being on twitter and eating kept his mind off his grumpy mood, and he was currently preoccupied. That was quickly interrupted when three trays were laid down at his table. He knew exactly who it was without looking up. The three musketeers he called his friends.

Dolph looked up from his phone with an attitude on his face and everyone saw it. "Tired?" they said all at the same time. Yes. He was extremely tired, but this was his job and he couldn't skip out on it. Speaking of skipping, where the brunette, short, hyper, big eyed, chick he was suppose to meet here.

"Hey man, we all caught the same flight as you, so we understand. What is with you and sleep though? It's like you love sleep more than … AJ." Kofi said with a laugh.

"That's so true. Fella, you would probably marry sleep if AJ wasn't in the picture." Sheamus said joining the laugh. Cody was too busy thinking about his fight with Kaitlyn so he wasn't speaking up.

"So where is your little spitfire anyway?" Kofi asked with a smile.

"I don't know, probably somewhere around here with Kaitlyn." Dolph said with a shrug. It wasn't that he didn't care; he just really didn't know the answer. It wasn't his first thought walking in here to see her because of the mood he was in. He didn't want to take any of that out on her, so he thought he'd fix at least his hunger and thirst before seeing her. "Alright well I need to go to the trainer's, so I'll see you guys later ok?"

They said their goodbyes and Dolph left. Was he going to the trainer's? Yes. Did he feel like dealing with the trainer telling him that basically he couldn't show off like he wanted to? No. He couldn't go out there with leg like this, so he had to go. When he got there, he knew what was going to happen, and that's exactly what happened.

"Mr. Ziggler, you strained a muscle, so if you are able to compete tonight against Jericho, you -"

"Against _who_?" Dolph said angrily.

"Jericho. That's your opponent tonight." The trainer obviously didn't see the problem here.

"How do you know that my opponent tonight?" Dolph was furious. He should have known Vickie would put him in a match with him sooner or later.

"He came in here earlier for us to stretch him out. So I'm saying if he puts you in 'The Walls of Jericho' submission, you need to tap out as quickly as possible."

"The walls only affect your back though."

"Not when you have a strained muscle. If Jericho holds your leg in that position for too long, he could tear the muscle. Then, you couldn't compete at all, and you can say goodbye to Wrestlemania." The trainers had to be brutally honest. If not, the superstars would still go out there and do what they wanted to and get hurt.

"Alright, I'll tap. Anything else?"

"Make sure when you hit the Zig Zag, you shift all your weight to your left leg instead of your right."

"Ok, no problem." Dolph stretched out some more, and headed to the locker room.

Dolph got there and realized his brunette love bug wasn't there to greet him. Where could she be? He'd find out later, right now he needed to rest his leg. Dolph passed out on the couch, letting his body take comfort to the soft couch. All he needed was rest now before his match with _Jericho_. About 15 minutes later, the guys decided to stop by and invite themselves in.

"Yeah sure, come on in, I wasn't doing anything." Dolph said sarcastically.

"We need to head to the gym, and we know you weren't coming if we didn't come get you, so let's go." Cody said pulling Dolph off the couch.

"I need to rest my leg." Dolph said trying to find any excuse not to go.

"No you don't. We talked to the trainer and he said sitting around is going to make it worse, you need to keep stretching it out." Sheamus said pushing him towards the door.

"Can I at least get in some clothes to work out in?"

"Nope. Sweats and a t-shirt is fine." Kofi said opening the door and making his way down the hall.

All the arenas had a gym inside, so they didn't walk too far. Going to the gym was straining for all of them. They hadn't been in a couple days and their bodies were on a schedule. Going 3 whole days without any gym time was the worse idea they ever had.

"Remind me never to go anywhere with no gym … EVER again?" Dolph said putting the weights down and grabbing his towel.

"Agreed." Sheamus said coming from off the weight bench.

"Have you seen AJ today dude?" Cody asked coming over.

"No, why?" Dolph said curious.

"_You _haven't seen AJ today? That's something I never would have guessed." Cody said with a laugh.

"Why? We're not _always _together?"

"No, I wasn't saying it like that. Kaitlyn was just telling me AJ felt bad for leaving yesterday because you looked sad she wasn't coming with us."

"Wait. You talked to Kaitlyn?" Dolph said knowing they had been arguing. Dolph and Cody were the only ones on the plane ride home that didn't have their lovely girlfriends with them. This gave them a chance to talk, and they learned a lot about each other, and what they liked and didn't like. It was overall pretty fun, but he still wished AJ was there.

"Yeah. I called her this morning, and she was saying her and AJ were getting lunch and then heading to the arena. But that was like at 2, and its 4:30 now."

"So you and her are okay now?"

"Yeah, it was so stupid to be fighting anyway. Right when I called her, it was basically over then. I apologized, she said it was okay, we laughed, we talked, and we hung up."

"That's good. Well, let's go. I'm on at the beginning of the show, but we can hang out in my locker room." Dolph said speaking to all the guys. As they were walking down the hallway, they were laughing because Sheamus tripped on a cord and fell.

"Not funny guys." Sheamus said getting up glaring at them.

"It's hilarious man!" Kofi said not able to breathe.

"It's totally funny. How did you not see it? All of us stepped over it!" Cody was uncontrollably laughing.

"I can't breathe … I can't brea—" Dolph was interrupted by a scream.

"ZIGGY!" Dolph's head shot to where the noise was coming from. He saw a short brunette girl running towards him. He knew that short brunette girl, and he was happy to see her. She was running to him, getting closer and he opened his arms to catch her.

She finally reached him and lifted herself into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist as he spun her around. "Hey baby! I missed you!" AJ said holding onto him tightly around his neck. She buried her face in his neck too, signally she missed him way more than she expected.

"I missed you too." Dolph said holding her as tight as she was holding him.

"Remind me never to go on any plane ride without you with a heartbroken girl okay?" Her voice was muffled, but he managed to understand what she said. "I missed you is a total understatement."

"It's alright, I'm here now right?" She nodded. "I highly doubt you missed me that much though."

AJ lifted her head, looking straight at him, "I so missed you babe! Like seriously, ask Kaitlyn, once she and Cody made up, I was talking about you the whole time!"

"Why do I think that's not true?" Dolph said smiling. He was about to kiss her when he saw out of the corner of his eye … the guys.

A J saw them too and awkwardly smiled at them. "Hey guys." She hopped down from Dolph and stood behind him, sort of embarrassed.

"Hey guys!" Kaitlyn said walking up to the group with a smile. She walked over to Cody and gave him a peck on the lips before turning towards AJ and Dolph. "So I see she didn't kill you. I thought she was going to pounce on you, and kill you with kisses."

"She pounced, just not with kisses. This proves you didn't miss me all that much, babe." Dolph said turning towards AJ.

"Trust me, it was Dolph this, and Dolph that, I can't wait to see him, he's so perfect, I missed him so much."

"Awwe, babe, you're so cute." Dolph said knowing she was embarrassed.

"I missed you." She whispered with a deep shade of red on her cheeks.

"What did you miss the most about me?" Dolph said smirking.

AJ playful glared at him, knowing what he was doing. "Really? You're trying to get an ego boost before your match tonight?"

"I'm not looking for an ego boost; I'm just simply asking my beautiful girlfriend what she missed about me?" Dolph said with a smile.

"I'll tell you if you tell me." AJ said reaching up to play with his hair.

"I can show you better than I can tell you." Dolph said leaning down to kiss her.

"NOPE! No no no no no no." Kaitlyn said stepping between them. "Not now. Nobody wants to see this in the middle of the hallway. Totally _not _PG."

"Kaitlyn! Move! You already kissed Cody!" AJ said getting upset. She wanted to kiss her very delicious looking boyfriend. "I am so going to put some extra butt-kicking when I attack you in our segment later." AJ said glaring at her.

"Don't forget we have match. Or did you forget about that one because you already know you're going to lose?" Kaitlyn said confidently.

"_You're _going to win? Oh really? I wasn't informed of that." AJ said getting in her face.

Dolph walked around Kaitlyn and got behind AJ grabbing her arm lightly. "AJ don't." He knew she was getting angry, and an angry AJ resulted in bad things happening.

"Don't you see this belt? This proves that I'm better than every single Diva in the locker room. And last time I checked you were a Diva. Or did that stop when you got with Dolph?" Kaitlyn said with a victorious smirk. She knew how AJ blew up at the tiniest things, so this was all fun and games to her. AJ on the other hand, was taking this seriously.

Uh-Oh. All the guys knew where this was going. They just looked at each other with worried faces.

"Come on Kaitlyn, let's go back to the locker room. You need to calm down." Cody said trying to persuade Kaitlyn to leave this situation alone.

"Stay out of this Cody!" Kaitlyn yelled at him not breaking the stare down her and AJ were having. "Are you scared AJ? If not you should be." Where was this coming from was what everyone wanted to know. This must be a girl thing, because none of the guys knew what to do or to say to make this go away.

"Why should I be scared? I'm dealing with a five foot-six inched, two-toned, horrible champion, of an _ex-best friend_, so what's to worry or be scared of?" AJ said crossing her arms, making Dolph let go.

"I'm the Diva's Champion." Kaitlyn said through her teeth, "and what are you? A five foot-two inched, crazy chick, follower, with only _hopes _of having what I have."

"And exactly how am I a follower?"

"You follow Dolph around like you're his little puppy dog! Get an identity! If you ever listen to commentary on his matches, all they say is 'Dolph's girlfriend' or 'AJ's crazy'. You've become everything you said you didn't want to be." Ouch. That one even hurt Kaitlyn to say.

"The _only _reason you have that title is because Eve quit, and you're probably the only one in the locker room who hasn't even laid eyes on it yet."

"What's with you and this back and forth? One day you're sweet AJ and the next, you're mean AJ? Dolph was right about you when he said that. I thought I knew you better than that, and he said it in the heat of the argument, but he was right."

"Don't bring him into this Kaitlyn!" AJ roared at her.

"You changed. Ever since it was all about you and him … you changed. To be honest, that's what happened with all your boyfriends. You let them get inside your head and you shut out everybody else until they hurt you!"

"You know what Kaitlyn … I have changed. I've become everything I've always wanted to be. I'm confident in myself, I have someone who loves me, and I could go to Vince's office right now and ask for a match at Wrestlemania and get it in a heartbeat. I'm happy when I wake up and go to bed, I don't dream about what I could be doing because I'm doing it!" AJ said slightly out of breath.

"Go get ready for Dolph's match. I'm pretty sure he'll be lost out there without you. Hopefully you guys won't get in a fight today."

"What is your problem? I've been nothing but a friend to you for the past couple of months, and this is what you're doing?" AJ said tearing up. "And since you want to keep bringing Dolph up, let's talk about him. First, he's an amazing boyfriend, and he doesn't take me around as though I'm his puppy. He's the one that encourages me to have matches, but I turn them down because I want too! He's more important to me than a stupid little match. Unlike you, I support my boyfriend. I'm out there with him, win or lose, and he doesn't treat me any different either way."

"The only reason I'm not out there with Cody is because we're not in a storyline together and you know it."

"Likely story, but we _all _know that we are, and we will always be a better couple than you and Cody."

"Look at you about to cry like the big baby you are." Kaitlyn said still provoking her.

AJ let a few tears fall. "I never thought I'd say this but you are the worse friend ever. Through our entire friendship it was always me who hurts us … but this is you."

"AJ come on." Dolph said pulling her into him.

"NO! She's not going to think I'm letting her get away with this." She said pulling away from him. "Before Dolph, it was always just me and you … what happened?"

"You got him." Kaitlyn said simply. "But I have someone better now, so it doesn't matter."

"This is about your obsession over Dolph when we were in NXT?!" AJ yelled.

This went from worried to awkward real quick.

"It doesn't matter anymore AJ, its -"

"Obviously not if you're spazzing on me because I'm dating the guy you liked 3 years ago!" AJ said in disbelief that she was still on this.

"YOU BROKE GIRL CODE! You were suppose to be my best friend, I told you everything, and you started dating him?!"

"Why does it matter?! You have Cody now!"

"Exactly AJ, now I have him. But before him, the first 4 months of you and Dolph's relationship I had to sit back and watch you guys love all over each other. You sat there in my face, day in, and day out, talking about how much you loved him, and how you guys did this and did that. Where in that whole situation are you a good friend?" Kaitlyn said with a sad look on her face.

"Kaitlyn I didn't know you still liked him first, and I'm sorry if I hurt you, but I'm not apologizing for loving him." AJ said softening her voice.

"I should have expected that from you, so I don't know why I'm so surprised. Who's it going to be next AJ? When things go wrong with you and Dolph, who's going to be your next victim? Or will you back track to the people who never cared about you? How about Daniel?"

"What -"

"Or Punk?"

"Kaitlyn I would never -"

"Kane?"

"I wouldn't -"

"John?"

"I wasn't with -"

"Or someone new?" Kaitlyn said tilting her head.

"What? I'm not-"

"Miz?"

"Kaitlyn stop!"

"Randy?"

"He has a wife and a kid! I wouldn't do th-"

"Wade?"

"Ok, ew!" AJ couldn't take it anymore. Dolph saw it coming and he couldn't do anything about it. She slapped her. Her breathing was unsteady and it was quiet. Kaitlyn looked in disbelief. She _slapped _her.

"There is A LOT more where that came from. So watch out in our match tonight, ok?" With that she walked away. Dolph didn't know what to do. He looked up and saw all the guys staring at him as if he decided what they were going to do about this.

"I'll see you guys later." Dolph said running to go find AJ. He knew she'd be in the locker room, but he wanted to make it there fast. He walked in and she pounced on him. She jumped on him how she was before, hugging him and burying her face in his neck again … crying.

"Babe, it's okay." Dolph said softly. He started stroking her hair as he went over to the couch and sat down. "Look at me?"

AJ shook her head and just kept crying. They sat there. Him holding her and her bawling her eyes out because her supposed best friend just called her a man-stealer. She didn't mean it. She didn't do this on purpose. She didn't wake up one day and say she was going to do her best to steal Dolph from Kaitlyn. She loved him, and she wasn't sorry for that. It was 3 years ago, and from what she knew, Kaitlyn had stopped liking Dolph for at least the last 2 of them.

"She - She - She w-was my best f—friend" AJ's head was still inside his neck, and her voice was muffled, but she managed to get that out. She was so choked up by the tears that she couldn't even start the next sentence she was going to say.

"I know." Dolph said rubbing her back. "It's going to be okay. Kaitlyn's being a jerk, and you don't have to deal with that."

"But she h-h-hurt my feelings Dolph! She k-knew every-thing she was saying w-would hurt, b-but she said it!" AJ said trying to calm down. "It hurt."

"Prove her wrong babe. Show her you're the bigger person … in theory." Dolph said. AJ's head shot up to glare at him. "Sorry. That wasn't an intentional short people joke."

"It's okay. I've heard worse today." She said laying her head on his shoulder, still hugging him tight.

"AJ. You're so much better than this. Don't let her get to you because of me. All of this is because of me." Dolph said looking away from her.

AJ sat back up and made him look at her. "No, this is totally not your fault. Don't ever think that. This is Kaitlyn being Kaitlyn. She has these tantrums every few months where she blames all her failures on everyone else but herself. This time she took it out on me. So, this is so not about you, alright?"

"I just feel bad. I kind of lead her on at NXT. I was around her so much, so yeah, I did flirt a little, but I didn't think she took it that seriously. It was a touch and go situation. I never wanted her; I never wanted to be in a relationship with her, I just … I don't know." Dolph said with remorse in his voice.

"We'll talk about it after the show okay? We have to get ready." AJ said looking at him. She hadn't seen those eyes since yesterday and she missed them.

"Okay," he said standing up with her still wrapped around his waist. "I think you have to let go though babe."

"Oh, right." She got down and they headed to start getting ready.

Raw was really intense today. Dolph lost to Jericho because of the walls, so he was forced to tap. Of course, Dolph being Dolph, he tried to hold on, but his leg started hurting … so he tapped. Later they came out with Big E and "strategized" while standing at the ramp watching Team Hell No's match. Were they really strategizing? No. They were discussing what they were going to do after the show. Then it was time for the AJ/Kaitlyn/Team Hell No segment. AJ stood outside the door for her cue talking to Dolph.

"I haven't had a match in a really long time." AJ said nervously.

"Hey, don't get all nervous. You'll be fine. Are you _positive _you don't want me out there?" Dolph said messing with the bottom of her shirt.

"Yes, I need you to stay. Just in case we get in an altercation, I don't want you to get in the middle of it." It was her time to walk in now and do her thing. About 2 minutes later she was carried out of the room by Daniel and Kane and she was screaming. Awkward.

"Alright, that was good guys!" The camera man said coming out of the room with Kaitlyn who was holding her head.

"Ok, thanks." AJ said grabbing Dolph's hand and starting to walk away. He walked her to the curtain because her match was next and of course, he wanted to be the first thing she saw when she came back. "Good luck babe."

"Thanks Ziggy." She said hugging him. "Let's hope I win."

"You will. But don't be too rough ok? You did just knock her head off of a water fountain."

"She so deserved that!" AJ said laughing, but soon stopped when Cody and Kaitlyn walked over.

"Hey man."Dolph said doing a short handshake with Cody.

"Hey dude." Cody replied with a smile. AJ's music started to play.

AJ smiled at him and went out there to steal the other half of the show that her boyfriend wasn't on. Kaitlyn came out and they started the match. Kaitlyn had the upper hand in the beginning until AJ slapped her … twice. Kaitlyn kicked her in the gut making her roll out of the ring. She set up for the spear, but missed and was sent flying into the barricades. Kaitlyn was counted out which meant AJ won. On the outside, AJ was playing her crazy chick role, but on the inside she was heartbroken. She had just beaten her best friend up, and that hurt her … a lot.

AJ got back stage and Dolph was smiling like crazy because she won. His smile faded once he realized she was about to cry. Dolph ran over to her and gave a big bear hug, letting her cry. A few minutes later she stopped and looked up at him.

"You just want to go to the hotel?" He asked her.

"Please." She whispered and they went back to the locker room to get their stuff.

The car ride to the hotel was silent. It was like they were fighting again, but they weren't. AJ was going through something and of course he was going to be there for her. They got to the hotel and got to their room putting their stuff down. AJ immediately got her pajamas and locked herself in the bathroom. After her being in there for half an hour, Dolph checked on her to make sure she's okay.

"Babe are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine." She said just loud enough for him to hear her.

"Are you tired? Do you feel like watching TV or a movie?"

"No."

"AJ come out of the bathroom please?" Dolph said leaning his head against the door. _Silence_.

"I'm going to bed then okay? So goodnight." Dolph said, "I love you." He walked away from the door and got in bed like he said he was going to do. He turned the TV off and got comfortable under the covers, and slowly started to fall asleep.

AJ had been in the bathroom for another 15 minutes before coming out. All she saw was a handsome man sleeping … alone. She had her hair pulled back in a pony tail and her pajamas on looking at him. Contemplating getting in the bed or not disturbing his sleep. She eventually got tired of standing and got in the bed. He moved around a little bit which made her freeze. She was about a foot away from him lying down and his eyes snapped open scaring her. "Gosh Dolph! Don't do that!"

"Sorry…"

"It's okay." She said holding her chest so she could stop breathing so fast.

Dolph looked at her one good time, and got himself comfortable again. AJ just looked at him. She realized then that she hadn't kissed him since she left Hawaii. So she moved as close to him cuddling up to him, which made him to move around again.

"Dolph?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry for being all emotional today. I let someone who hurt me, ruin the rest of our night." She looked up at him and saw he was looking right back down at her. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Nothing's wrong with you AJ." Dolph said finally putting his arm around her how he knew she loved.

"AJ? Are you mad at me?" He only called her AJ when something was wrong, or he was being serious. So which one was it?

"No, why would I be mad at you?"

"I don't know. You called me AJ."

"That's your name right?" Dolph said with a laugh. AJ out of nowhere starting tearing up and crying again.

"Babe, no no no no no no!" Dolph said wiping her tears. "I was kidding!"

"It's not you. Kaitlyn basically said I sleep around a lot and can't keep a steady boyfriend."

"Babe everyone knows that's not true, so don't worry about."

AJ just cried. All her insecurities being brought back and punching her in the face. Her own best friend named the whole roster saying they'd be her next victims. Dolph was it. He was her last stop and she wasn't going anywhere. She eventually cried herself to sleep with her head on his chest. He stayed up with her, stroking her hair, comforting her. When he knew she was sleep, he went to bed as well.

It was about 3 o'clock in the morning and Dolph and AJ were sound asleep. A loud ring filled the room waking Dolph up instantly. He looked over to realize it was his phone ringing. Someone was calling him at 3 am? He tried to grab it in hopes of not waking AJ up. Of course his ring tone for all the superstars were their ring entrances and for some reason he heard S.O.S. calling his phone. _Kofi_. Why was Kofi calling his phone?

"Hello?" Dolph said as he picked up the phone.

"Hey man!" Kofi said really hyper.

"What do you want? If you haven't noticed, it's like 3 in the morning."

"Oh yeah huh? Well I can't sleep so I thought I'd bother you. You're normally are awake around this time."

"On my _off _days!" Dolph said whisper-yelling.

"You have work tomorrow? Oh yeah! Smackdown taping tomorrow huh?"

"Get off my phone Kofi."

"Well any who, how was your night? What did you do after leaving the arena?"

"I came back to the hotel with AJ." Dolph said simply. AJ had been woken up by the deep vibrations of his chest when he was talking. She stayed still to hear his conversation. Since it was dead silent in the room, she could hear what Kofi was saying to him, making it easier to eavesdrop. AJ was about to fall back asleep when she heard him say her name catching her interest.

"You went straight to the hotel? Why?"

"AJ wanted to come back here. She wasn't … feeling good." Dolph said sort of lying.

"I know that's not true. Did you forget I was there during the whole Kaitlyn/AJ show down they had before the show?"

Dolph sighed deeply. "I honestly don't understand woman. I have no clue what that was, and I'm not sure I want to know, but that fact that I'm the reason AJ's past got brought back up is killing me slowly."

"That was so not your fault! That was Kaitlyn bringing up something that happened 3 years ago like a petty school girl. If she had such a big problem with you guys dating, she would have something months ago when you actually _started _dating. But she has Cody now, so bringing that back up was irrelevant." Kofi said trying to help his friend feel better. "How is she?"

"Well … she hasn't talked much. She locked herself in the bathroom and wouldn't come out for like an hour. But I was tired so I went to bed and she came sometime later and … I don't even know."

"Dolph…" Kofi said hearing in his voice he was slightly agitated.

"I don't get her. Well, I mean, of course I get her, I just don't get what exactly is wrong and how to help."

"Just talk to—"

"I've tried. It doesn't work. You would think I would know how to deal with a situation like this, but I don't. I'm normally the one caged up and not talking about things. She's normally the one that wants to talk about everything and get her feelings out, so I have no tactic … at all, to get her to talk."

"Give her space?" Kofi said now just suggesting things to him.

"And what exactly is that going to do? I hate when people say they need space. Space to do what?"

"To think Dolph."

"Well you could think right here, right now … but noooo, you need _space_."

"Have you tried …" Kofi couldn't even get think of anything else.

"It's her insecurities coming back out again." Dolph said finally realizing what was wrong.

"What?"

"Anytime AJ's past with men or anything is brought up, she goes back into this little hole she dug for herself a long time ago. Kofi I swear I just got her to crawl out of that hole and realize I'm different, but now that's come up again –" Dolph interrupted his own sentence with a small 'ugggh'."

"Dude, just give her time. I promise you tomorrow everything will be okay." Kofi said hopeful.

"Don't make promises you can't keep." Dolph said hopelessly. "Is that all you called me for?"

"Yeah. I was wondering why I didn't walk in on you and AJ making out today. It's normally a daily thing that I've gotten used to."

"Ok, ew. To be honest, I don't think we've kissed at all today."

"WHAT?!" Kofi said so loud you would have thought he was on speaker. It scared AJ too, but she successfully didn't move so she could still listen. "You guys haven't kissed today?! Isn't that like breaking a Zigglee law or something?!"

Dolph laughed at how shocked he was. "Dude calm down."

"How am I more upset about this than you?!"

"I honestly don't know why you're upset that I haven't kissed my girlfriend in over 24 hours … oh my God … saying that out loud makes you realize that's a total problem." Dolph told him.

"Exactly. I suggest first thing in the morning, you just wake her up and kiss her."

"If I say I'll do it will you let me sleep?" Dolph said yawning.

"Yes."

"Ok, fine, I'll do it. Now bye!" Dolph said hanging up the phone and almost instantly following back asleep. AJ on the other hand laid there for a minute and thought about it. She knew what she had to do in the morning. How well it was going to play out was another thing.

The next morning Dolph woke up and felt something on his stomach. He opened his eyes and realized it was a hundred-pound brunette sitting on his stomach with a pillow. "I wanted to suffocate you, but you woke up before I got a chance."

"Are you feeling better? Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I'd rather not." AJ said holding the pillow tight.

"We have to eventually talk about it. We see her today and I don't want any more problems." Dolph said sitting up making her slide into his lap.

"I don't want to talk about it." She said not looking at him.

"Ok." He said giving up. If she didn't want to talk about it, what more could he do. "Well, we have to get ready for the show, so-"

All of a sudden Dolph's phone goes off and you hear Sheamus' entrance song. Dolph groaned and answered his phone and put it on speaker.

"Hello?" he said with a small amount of irritation which made AJ stare at him hard.

"I don't think I can do this anymore." Sheamus said with a sigh. Dolph could tell he was getting choked up.

"What are you talking about?"

"Layla didn't come back to the hotel last night and when she did, she came back with my brother."

"What's the problem with her coming back with your brother?" Dolph didn't understand.

"They both came in the room apologizing to me but I didn't understand what they had done wrong. Layla started crying and saying she was drunk and got my brother and I mixed up. I still didn't understand, and then my brother just came and said they slept together last night."

Dolph froze. Layla cheated? AJ jumped out of his lap and started rushing to the bathroom to start getting ready. "How could she do that? I thought you guys were perfect for each other. How are you holding up?"

"We argrued about for an hour and then she said she was going to the arena to give me time to quote-unquote 'cool off'."

"Why do _you _need to cool off? She's the one that did something wrong. Why is your brother out here in the first place?"

"I don't know, he said he came to see the show tonight before he moves to New York."

AJ walked out the bathroom ready to go and noticed him still on the phone. She grabbed all her things and ran out to go see Layla. Her friend needed her. This was a crucial time and this was when friends needed each other most.

When she got to the arena, she found Layla with the rest of the girl bawling her eyes out.

"Layla what happened?"


	9. Closer To Me

"Last night after the show Sheamus and I went to the bar. We met his brother and we all sat down and started taking shots. Sheamus wasn't feeling good so he went upstairs to the room. His brother didn't drink a lot but he was watching me drink as we were watching the game. The last thing I remember is dancing on the table." Layla said crying. "I woke up this morning in the same bed as his brother in my underwear and a t-shirt, but I swear we didn't sleep together! But his brother keeps saying that we did!"

"It's okay, calm down, I'm pretty sure Sheamus wouldn't believe you would do anything like that." AJ said rubbing her back.

"I tried talking to him this morning when his brother and I came to our room, but he wouldn't stop yelling. We argued about it and I tried telling him, but he wouldn't listen so I just left so he could calm down." Layla said started calm down.

"Well I have to start getting ready for my match tonight, so I have to hit the gym." AJ said ,"I'll talk to you later Lay."

"Thanks girlie, see you later." Layla said with a small smile.

Later on after everyone's matches and the show was over, everyone agreed to go to the hotel and rent a huge suite with multiple rooms and a kitchen so they could all hang out.

"Alright, all men need to go on one half of the suite, and the women get the other half." Cameron said.

"Well, who gets the kitchen?" Kofi said.

"We do, since we're the only people that know how to cook." Kaitlyn said.

"We can cook! I made you a scrumptious PB&J last night!" Cody said which made everyone laugh.

"Are we supposed to starve tonight then?" Dolph said.

"No, you can order room service with a side of kisses for dessert, you obviously haven't been interested in them for a while." AJ said with an attitude.

Dolph rolled him eyes, "Whatever, you obviously haven't been too interested in mine."

"Well at least she's not interested in your brother's lips Ziggles, so be happy." Sheamus said sitting down on the couch. Layla snapped her head towards him.

"Sheamus stop being such a jerk." Kaitlyn said glaring at him

"She didn't do anything and you haven't heard her side of the story yet!" Cameron said moving towards Layla in a protective manner.

"Okay look, instead of having a back and forth discussion about it, how about you guys just talk about it?"AJ said trying to keep the peace.

Dolph gave a fake laugh, "You're one to talk about 'just talking' about things."

"Excuse me?" AJ said looking at him. "I just want everyone to get along. If we all came here to fight then we could have just stayed at the arena and had a dark match or something."

"That would have been kind of fun actually." Dolph said turning to Sheamus. "Tag team partner?"

"Definitely." Sheamus said smiling for the first time today.

"Okay look, let's just all admit that Sheamus was wrong and let's just move on." Cameron said.

"What? How is he wrong? _She _cheated!" Kofi said.

"She didn't cheat!" Kaitlyn yelled over them.

"What do you call waking up in bed with your boyfriend's brother?" Cody said. It was starting to get divided and everyone saw it. Boys vs Girls.

"You haven't heard her side of the story." AJ said.

"What more is there to the story?! She _cheated _on him!" Dolph said defending Sheamus.

"Dolph, you're telling me that there is _no way _she couldn't have cheated?" AJ said getting in his face.

"You're really close to me." Dolph said his breath getting faster.

"I would kiss right now, but you're on the wrong side." AJ said with a smirk.

"Who says I want your kisses. I thought I could just order some for dessert." He winked at her which made her have to hide a smile.

"You'd rather have someone else's kisses than mine?"

"Did I say that?"

"No, I'm just asking." There was no more room between their bodies and they wanted to kiss each other badly … but they had to be strong.

"You want to kiss me don't you?" Dolph said with smirk.

"You know I do … and I'm pretty sure you want to kiss me too."

"Of course, you know I can't resist you, babe."

"Okay, we're not doing this right now. You guys are technically on the girl's side right now … so leave." Kaitlyn said pushing the guys over a line they had drawn on the floor.

AJ looked over at Dolph and gave a smile. She missed him. They hadn't kissed each other in almost 48 hours and it was finally getting to her.

"How do we go to the bathroom?" Cody asked.

"Fine. The only way you can come over is to use the bathroom." Cameron said rolling her eyes.

"I guess I'll be peeing a lot tonight." Dolph said winking at AJ. She laughed at him and playfully shook her head. Ugh. She loved him.

After a couple hours of everyone being separated, Dolph actually had to pee and went to the bathroom. When he came out, AJ was coincidently walking down the hall. They saw each other and she blew him -a kiss.

"Really? That's all I can get?" He said whispering, walking over to her. Whispering was the only way they could enjoy their moment and not get caught.

"No, you definitely can get more than that." She said standing on her tippy toes so they were face to face.

"I can?"

"You definitely can—"

"Ummm what are you guys doing? Dolph why are you over here?" Cameron said catching them.

"I was just using the bathroom!" Dolph said backing away from AJ a little.

"AJ?" Cameron said raising her eye brows.

"I ummm … I was on my way to the kitchen … and I ummm …" AJ couldn't think of an excuse so she just walked pass Cameron and back to the girl's room.

It was 11 o'clock and everyone was bored out of their minds. The boys ended up crashing the girl's party in one of the rooms, and after a fun pillow fight, they decided to play hide and seek. Acting like they were 10 was actually really fun and everyone was being positive.

"Alright Lay it's your turn to count." AJ said. For a really huge suite, there were a lot of good hiding spots. Everyone started running when Layla started counting. Dolph ran into a bedroom closet and hid behind some clothes that were hung up against the wall for the night. A few seconds later someone else entered the closet. It was AJ and she scooted over to him automatically wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Why did you choose this as your hiding spot?" She asked him coming as close as she could.

"I know someone else will get found before me, and I'm definitely not going to be it." He said with a small chuckle.

"I like this hiding spot. It's really … hidden." AJ said softly biting her lip.

"You know what I like?"

"What?"

"Your liiiippppppsssss." Dolph said dragging on the word 'lips'.

"Oh really? I didn't know. You never told me."

"I always tell you I can show you better than I can tell you."

"I haven't been shown for the last 48 hours, but I mean … its okay."

"It's not my fault you haven't tasted these delicious lips for 48 hours."

"So it's my fault? I don't think so-" AJ was interrupted by the closet door opening and exposing them to the whole group looking at them.

"AJ you've traded sides?" Layla asked looking dead serious.

"Huh? Oh umm … no!" AJ said quickly taking her hands from around Dolph's neck and stepping a few steps away.

"You're supposed to be with the girls. Its girls vs boys and you're about to make out with your boyfriend." Cameron said.

"I'm sorry, I just -"

"It doesn't matter! Let's just get back to the game, okay?" Kaitlyn said rolling her eyes. AJ stood there. Kaitlyn obviously was mad still and so was AJ, but AJ didn't bring that negative energy to the party. She was avoiding Kaitlyn at all costs and she had a nerve to speak to her?

"Babe, come on." Dolph said grabbing her hand and walking out of the room.

"Dolph let go! I'm not a guy, so you can't be talking to me." AJ said trying to get her hand away from him, which only resulted in him getting pulled closer.

They were once again … face to face. All she wanted was to feel his lips against hers again and she would be the happiest girl in the world. They were about to kiss when Dolph's phone rang and it was his agent.

"Hello?" Dolph said in his business voice. "Tomorrow?" Dolph said looking confused at what his agent had said to him. "What about the house show on Thursday and Saturday?" AJ was trying to think of what the agent was saying, but there were too many scenarios in her head. "Ok, email me the flight information." Uh-Oh. Dolph sounded slightly irritated. "Alright … ok, bye." He hung up the phone and looked everywhere but back at AJ.

"What happened?" AJ asked concerned.

"I uh … I have to catch a flight tomorrow to Texas." Dolph said finally looking at her.

"W-What?" He couldn't be leaving. Why was he leaving?

"I have to go to Texas tomorrow for this Wrestlemania sweatshirt photo shoot thingy." Dolph said with an 'I'm sorry' face.

"Why do you have to go all the way to Texas?"

"They were going to do it wherever I was, but they were having issues and they didn't want to do something and blah blah blah. I don't even know."

"Well what _do_ you know?" AJ was starting to tear up.

"All I know is that I'm going to be gone from Wednesday to Sunday. While I'm there they want me to do media and signings and stuff so ..." Dolph said melting because he could tell she was going to cry.

"Wednesday through Sunday? Well what about the house show Thursday and Saturday?"

"Apparently that's already been taken care of. Vince has agreed for you to have a mixed tag team match with Big E because I'm away for some reason. I kind of tuned out after the 'you're leaving tomorrow' part." Dolph didn't want to leave. If he had a choice of course he'd stay, but this was his job and he had to do his job.

"Well … when do you leave tomorrow?" AJ asked finally letting one small tear fall.

"At 10 in the morning."

"10?"

"Yeah." This was making Dolph very unhappy. He was going to be multiple states away from his girlfriend and he couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't come because of the house shows and he couldn't stay.

"I guess you have to do what you have to do then."

"Why are you guys still in the hallway? We're about to play truth or dare." Cody said coming from the living room not noticing what was going on.

"We're coming." Dolph said putting on a fake smile. "Babe, come on, don't get all upset."

"I'm not. It's just, I haven't kissed you in a couple days and right when I finally get the chance … you have to leave."

"Don't worry. I'll call you, text you, email you, and video chat with you … anything that keeps you from looking like that."

AJ had a pouty/sad/mad/irritated look on her face. She didn't want him to go if that wasn't obvious enough. "Promise?"

"Of course. Now let's go play to get your mind off of it."

"What if I don't wake up in time enough for you to go to the airport?" AJ said letting another tear fall.

"I'll wake you up. I would never leave like that. Are you actually coming to the airport?"

"YES!" She shouted unexpectedly.

"Ok, good. Then you won't miss a single beat."

"Alright." AJ said with a half smile. They walked back to the group and joined in the game. The game got heated and really interested really quickly. Since they weren't in public they didn't have to hold back … they went all out. It was fun and everyone was having a laugh. AJ snuck over to Dolph later in the game and sat next to him. "Will you at least sleep with me tonight?" She whispered to him.

"I was going to sleep with you anyway." Dolph whispered back to her.

"I wanted to make sure I had a cuddle buddy tonight before you have to leave tomorrow." She laid her head on his shoulder.

"You definitely will. If it was up to me, I wouldn't be going, but unfortunately I have to."

"I know." AJ said with a sigh, tearing up again.

"Hey, look at me," Dolph said pulling her on his lap not caring about everyone else there. "I'm going to be right back. I'll be back before you know it, and then we can kiss and cuddle as much as you want to, okay?"

"I'm going to miss you." AJ said letting a few tears fall.

"Don't cry, babe. Please?" Dolph said with those sad eyes he had earlier.

"Don't leave me." She was full out crying now, which got everyone's attention.

"I don't have a choice."

AJ sat there in his lap crying. Everyone started coming over but Dolph shook his head telling them to leave them alone. He picked her up and carried her into their designated room and laid her down on the bed. "Ziggy … don't leave me … please?"

Dolph changed his clothes and picked her up and put her under the covers. He went to his side and got under the blanket and pulled her super close. "I wish I could stay babe … but I can't."

"I know … but what if you like it down there and you don't want to come back to me? Or you find another girl and you love her more than me? What if you get kidnapped? What if a fan mauls you? What if—" He interrupted her with the most passionate kiss they have ever had. All the time they surprised each other with how much passion they can put into one kiss.

AJ and Dolph's lips moved in sync with each other. They missed this. This was long overdue, and all they did was stall. Stalling actually wasn't a bad idea because it made them crave each other. They wanted each other more than they did before.

Once again, air was needed, and they had to break from the extra delicious kiss they were sharing. "I promise I will not get mauled or kidnapped. There is nothing there that will keep me from coming back here to be with you, okay?" Dolph said looking into her eyes.

"Okay." She said with a smile. That kiss took every negative emotion she had and threw it away. It was all gone and she felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders.

"Now let's go to sleep. We have a long day tomorrow starting at 8 when I unfortunately have to leave for the airport."

"Don't remind me." She said digging her head in his chest.

"Well instead of talking we can do something else…" Dolph said with a smirk.

"Ziggy we can't." AJ said with sad eyes. Of course she would love to … but they couldn't.

"Whhhyyyy?" Dolph said as he pouted.

"First, these are very thin walls. Second, since there are like 6 other people in this suite, I don't think that's the best idea."

"Will you at least kiss me until I'm sleepy?"

"Depends on when you get sleepy."

"One day your teasing isn't going to work, but until then will you make me the happiest guy on Earth and kiss me?" He gave her the cheekiest smile he could produce.

"Come here." She said grabbing his shirt and pulling him into a kiss.

The next morning Dolph's alarm went off at 7:30. He turned it off and got up to get all his last minute items to put in his suitcase. He was trying to give AJ as much sleep as possible because of course she wanted to go. At about 7:50 he woke AJ up so she could get dressed and they could leave. Before leaving Dolph started saying goodbye to all their friends which made it finally sink in that he was actually leaving. Of course, when everyone found out he was leaving for more than a day or so, they all wanted to come to the airport too. So in the end, this turned into another group outing.

When they got to the airport everything seemed so unreal to AJ. She stayed quiet and stayed as close to Dolph as possible. Every chance she got, she pulled him down for a kiss, letting him know how much she was going to miss him. AJ thought if she kept kissing him, it would at least hold her over until he got back … it wasn't working. They all sat there at his gate waiting for his plane to be called. It was now 9:45 and his plane would be here soon, so everyone was asking questions and saying they were going to miss him.

"I'm going to miss you baby." AJ said letting a few tears fall.

"I'm going to miss you too. Stop crying though okay? You're going to ruin that pretty face." Dolph said wiping her tears away.

"Don't worry AJ; we have all your favorite video games, so that'll keep you busy." Layla said trying to brighten her spirits.

AJ ignored her, "You promise to call me at least once an hour?"

"I can't promise that babe, but I can promise to call you as much as I can." Dolph said kissing her.

"Will you bring me back a -" Sheamus started but couldn't finish because AJ had attacked Dolph again with another kiss.

Dolph pulled away and looked at Sheamus. "Sorry, bring you back a –" AJ turned his head and made him kiss her again. Anytime he tried to say something or someone else said anything to him, she would interrupt it with a kiss. This went on until passengers were called onto the plane.

"_Now boarding all passengers on flight D-74 to Houston, Texas." _Everyone heard that and their attention snapped to AJ and Dolph. Everybody said their last goodbyes to him except for AJ who walked him to the tunnel.

"Come here." Dolph said pulling the hysterical brunette into his arms. "I will be back on Sunday okay? Bright and early, Sunday morning, so stop being upset."

"How can I not be upset Dolph? You're leaving me. You're leaving me, your girlfriend, for 5 days!" AJ voice was so high-pitched you barely could hear what she was saying.

"I'm not leaving you babe. I'm just going to be gone for a couple days. What do you want to do when I get back? I'll do anything you want, just don't cry." Dolph's heart was breaking.

"Dolph … just don't go!" AJ yelled into his shirt.

"Remember when I went to Australia?" Dolph said rubbing her back trying to calm her down. She nodded and he continued. "I stayed there for an entire week, this is shorter!"

"I almost died when you went to Australia Dolph! That's not a good example to make me not miss you."

"I don't know what to say AJ. I can't tell you that I can't go, because I have too. But please know that if I could stay I would."

"_Last call for passengers on flight D-74 to Houston, Texas." _

AJ burst out into more tears but pulled him down by his neck for one … last … kiss. "Don't forget me okay?"

"I can't forget the most gorgeous girl on the planet." Dolph said.

"Bye Ziggy." AJ said hugging him tight.

"Bye Spidermonkey." Dolph kissed her head and let her go. He gave her a half smile and started walking down the tunnel. He turned back to look at her, and saw she was crying even worse with Layla and Cameron helping her stand. He soon disappeared into the plane and she couldn't see him anymore and the group drove her back to the hotel.

The beginning of Wednesday was completely silent for AJ. She couldn't talk … she barely ate … and she didn't move out of her and Dolph's bed until she had to use the bathroom. At about 2:30 she got a call on her phone from Dolph, which woke her up out of her sleep.

"Hi Ziggy!" AJ said perking up as she answered the phone. When they heard her talking, everyone rushed in the room to see her on the phone with Dolph.

"Hey babe, what are you doing?"

"Nothing, just lying down. When you called everyone came in here to make sure I wasn't talking to myself. Now they're staring at me." AJ said with a really small laugh.

Dolph laughed completely, "Do you feel okay? I thought you might have a headache or something."

"I did, but since I was lying down, it's gone away."

"That's good. I just wanted to call you and let you know I landed and I'm on my way to the hotel I'm staying at." AJ was tearing again and Dolph could feel it even thousands of miles away and over the phone. She was just silent and covered her face with the sleeves to a hoodie he had left her. "Babe … don't cry."

"I'm not crying." AJ said with her voice cracking.

"Babe –"

"Dolph, I'm fine. I think I cried enough at the airport and on the way back to the hotel."

"I miss you already. Last time we were in Texas, we were together for Raw I think."

"Yeah it was Raw. That was the day Kaitlyn won her championship match over Eve." Kaitlyn's eyes shot to AJ who was looking down at her knees that she had pulled to her chest.

"Oh yeah huh? You guys were so happy that day. How about you be that happy again right now for me?"

"You were there when I was that happy … you aren't now." AJ said sniffling, letting more tears fall.

"Well I have to go check in to the hotel; I'll call you after I find out everything that's going on today, okay?"

"Yeah sure baby, that's fine."

"I love you babe."

"I love you too Ziggy, bye." AJ said shutting her eyes as tight as she could.

"Bye." With that, they hung up and AJ wiped her tears, lying back down.

"AJ do you want -" Kofi started.

"No. Can you guys leave please?"

"Yeah … sure." Kofi said as everyone headed out of the room. One person was left in the room, and came and sat down by AJ.

"What do you want Kaitlyn? Do you want to rub it in my face that he's not here? I honestly don't have the strength mentally or physically to deal with you right now." AJ said already getting an attitude at her.

"AJ … I didn't stay to argue. I came to apologize. What I did to you wasn't right and I'm sorry. Everything I said I knew would hurt you and I felt like crap after Raw was over. I deserved those slaps and anything you did to me on Raw because I was a horrible friend."

"You're not a friend!" AJ answered quickly.

"I understand if you don't want to forgive me, but can we at—"

"We're _best _friends. Best friends go through things, and they eventually get over it." AJ said with her first actual smile of the day.

"Chickbusters?" Kaitlyn said with her fist out.

"Always." AJ said doing the handshake.

"Now get out this bed! No best friend of mine is going to mope around while her boyfriend is out of town."

"What would we even do?"

"Get you out of the hotel and get you to live a little!" Kaitlyn said pulling her out of the bed.

During the next couple of days AJ had as much fun as she could. The group continuously kept her outside the hotel and always kept her busy doing something. AJ spoke to Dolph as often as she could and she wasn't in such a funk anymore. Of course she missed him like crazy, but with her always being preoccupied, she never had time to break down and cry how she wanted to. Dolph was supposed to be coming home on Sunday and everyone was supposed to go pick him up at the airport at 9 o'clock in the morning. It was Saturday night, and no one was sleep yet because AJ wasn't sleep. They always stayed up with her, making sure she didn't cry herself to sleep.

"You guys don't have to stay up with me." AJ said coming from the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn.

"Yes we do. We're not about to let you cry yourself asleep thinking about-" Kaitlyn's statement was interrupted by "I'm here to show the world" going off on AJ's phone.

"Speaking of Dolph." AJ said with a small giggle. "Hey baby!" she said picking up the phone putting it on speaker so everyone could hear.

"Hey babe. What are you doing?" Dolph said glad to hear her voice was happy and not sad.

"Nothing. We're all watching a random movie Sheamus and Layla chose."

"Sheamus and Layla? That can't be good."

"Since they're all cuddled up and in love again they chose the sappiest movie possible." AJ said which resulted in a couch pillow being thrown at her.

"What movie?"

"The Notebook. I actually didn't cry this time."

"Good. I've seen you cry way too much lately." Dolph said being serious. He hated to see her cry. It was like stabbing him in the chest multiple times.

"I'm sorry, I just-" AJ stopped herself, feeling tears forming.

"AJ don't … you haven't cried this entire trip, don't wait until the last day." Dolph said with a sad voice.

"No, I'm fine, I umm-" Yes. She was finally crying again. She had held it in for the last couple days and it was flooding over.

"AJ you're killing me … please stop crying."

"I can't do this anymore."

"What do you mean babe?" Dolph said concerned.

"You not being here anymore is what's killing _me _Dolph. I couldn't cry because our awesome but annoying friends wouldn't let me. This whole week I've wanted some Rocky Road ice cream but we made a pact we wouldn't ever eat it without each other. Dolph I can't explain in words how much I miss you. I miss your presence. I miss you waking me up in the morning for house shows. I miss you feeding me my Rocky Road ice cream. I miss you lying with me at night before I go to bed. I miss your hair, your blue eyes, and your perfect lips that fit perfectly with mine." AJ said as she cried into the phone. "I don't want to just hear your voice over the phone. That's not working for me. I need you here … but you're not."

Dolph didn't know what to say. He was in shock and he was surprised. "AJ I -"

"Dolph I have to go okay? Call me in the morning when you're leaving Texas. Goodnight. I love you. Bye." AJ said hanging up rushing to get off the phone. She looked up from her phone with tears streaming down her face to see everyone already at her side. "I'm sorry guys, go back to your movie. I'm going to just go to bed."

Nobody said anything. Instead, they just let her go to her room and go to bed. When AJ got in there of course she didn't go to sleep. She went over to her suitcase and got the hoodie he left her and slipped it on. His side of the bed was the only place she slept while he was gone, and she wasn't going to change that anytime soon. Laying there she realized that she had soaked the pillow with her tears. She didn't care. She wanted her boyfriend. This may seem like she has separation anxiety … and that might be true.

The next morning at 8 o'clock AJ woke up and realized Dolph hadn't called her. She would see him in an hour, but that didn't stop the tears. Why was this affecting her so much? When he went to Australia, she was the same, but no one was really around to see it. All their friends weren't coupled up yet, so she was alone.

AJ finally got out of the bed. Not wiping her tears but heading out to the living room where she knew everyone would be.

"Hey AJ how are you feeling?" Layla asked.

"How does it look like I feel?" AJ said agitated but finally wiping her face. This wasn't a day you wanted to ask her dumb questions.

"Sorry." Layla said.

"I'm sorry Layla. It's just I miss him, and it's all gone to my head, and I'm freaking out, and I don't know what to do with myself, and he's not here, and I want him, and I can't have him, and -" AJ was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Oh, we ordered your favorites from room service to cheer you up." Kaitlyn said with a smile.

"Awwe, thanks guys." AJ said with a half smile. She started heading towards the door getting her taste buds ready for some fluffy pancakes. Everyone knew AJ loved pancakes.

Kaitlyn rushed to her. "Why are you answering the door?"

"Because it's my food." AJ said with a weird look on her face.

"But I wanted to get the door." Kaitlyn said acting like a 10 year old.

"Kaitlyn, it's my food." AJ said twisting the door handle.

"But _I _want to answer the door."

"Kaitlyn! It's my food! I want to open the door!"

"Stop twisting that door handle! I want to open the door!"

"Nope."

"AJ!"

"Nope."

"AJ!"

"Nope."

"Fine! Open the door!" Kaitlyn said crossing her arms.

"Thank you! Sometimes I swear you act like a huge, " AJ opened the door fully and turned her head to get the food … she saw something scrumptious … but it wasn't food. "baby." AJ stood there. Her mouth hung open and her world turned around. There in front of her, was her six-foot, blonde, loving, Money in the Bank Contract having boyfriend.

"Hey there future Mrs. Ziggler, I heard you ordered a future World Heavyweight Champion with delicious lips, with a side of Rocky Road ice cream." Dolph said with a smile.

"Dolph?"

"The one and only." Dolph said still standing in the middle of the hallway. "So, did I get your order right?"

"…..perfect." she said just above a whisper, stepping closer to him feeling his breath quicken. "You got everything … just perfectly."

"Did I?" Dolph said leaning down a little.

"Every. Single. Thing." AJ said smiling and then kissing him. Yes. They were doing this with the door open, so anyone in the hallway walking by could see. AJ pulled away first smiling uncontrollably. "So I have the future World Heavyweight Champion and his delicious lips, where's my Rocky Road ice cream?"

"Right here." He said reaching into his bag to get the ice cream. "Just for you. I didn't get any for me, just so you could have it all to yourself."

"Awwe, thanks Ziggy." She said taking the ice cream from him.

"We missed you man." Kofi said coming into the living room.

"Too bad I didn't miss you guys." Dolph said with a big smile.

"Yeah right!" Kofi said giving him a man hug.

"Dolph come put your bags in the room." AJ said heading into their room.

Dolph followed behind her only to get yanked inside the room and attacked with kisses once the door was closed. "You didn't really want me to put my stuff down did you?"

"Nope." AJ said kissing him again.

"I think I have a small idea of what you really want." Dolph said with a smirk.

"I know exactly what I want." AJ said pushing herself up so she could wrap her legs around his waist. This was turning into their signature position, and neither of them was complaining about it.

"Thin walls, remember babe?"

"Too bad for them." AJ said with a laugh and kissed him again. She missed this man way too much to care about their friends being there. This was their moment … and it was everything she ever wanted.

Dolph and AJ spent the rest of their Sunday making each other smile. Kissing was inevitable and they enjoyed every moment. They had to leave at about 5 that evening and started driving to Washington D.C. for their next Raw. The group got there at about 3 in the morning, but that didn't stop AJ and Dolph from loving all over each other. This time they got their own room, so thin walls weren't a problem, and they could enjoy everything they were going to do.

The next morning AJ and Dolph woke up snuggled into each other wrapped up in the sheets. They laid there looking at each other with their fingers intertwined. Every now and then Dolph would kiss her hand making her giggle and actually kiss him, but not once did they break the silence. It was finally a good silence. They hadn't had a moment of silence for a while that didn't involve tension in the air, or one being mad at the other. It was finally just natural for them again. Finally, things were back to normal.

"Would you really want to marry me one day?" AJ said breaking the silence.

"Of course." Dolph said without hesitation and a smile on his face.

"Why?"

"I love you. I love you so much that I want you to be mine forever and I want everyone to know it."

AJ was silent for a little bit. "I like you like this."

"Like what?" Dolph said curiously.

"Remember how I said I wanted you to be the Dolph I woke up to on my birthday?" he nodded. "Right now … you're so much better than that." Dolph smiled and kissed her. "I like that you're not so closed in about everything. It makes me feel good that if anything's wrong, you feel comfortable coming to me and telling me about it."

"I honestly don't know why you stayed with me through that phase in my life." Dolph said looking at her deeply with those piercing blue eyes.

"Because just like you said, it was just a phase. I wasn't going to give up on you that easy. Just like you didn't give up on me." AJ said scooting a little bit closer to him.

"There was nothing to give up on babe."

"You didn't give up on that insecure, lonely, scarred, crazy chick that I was when you first met me. You looked past all of that and saw who I really was. You didn't look at my character on TV and think of me as her, you saw me for who I _really_ was."

"Because you're so much more than just your character on TV."

"Not everybody would see what you saw Dolph. That's what I'm saying. You cared … they didn't."

"I care a lot about you babe."

"I know." AJ said smiling through a kiss she gave him. In actuality, this was a heart-to-heart conversation they were having. They both loved these types of conversations because they cared so much about each other that no matter what, they listened. "I want to ask you a question Ziggy."

"Anything." He said simply.

"Remember when we started dating and you told me the only family you talked to was your grandparents and your youngest brother?" Dolph nodded. "Well, your grandparents live in D.C. right? I just was wondering could I … meet them?" AJ said looking at him hard to see his reaction.

"Sure. I haven't seen them in forever. I'll call them and see if we can come by after the show." Dolph said with a smile.

AJ was surprised at how well he was taking this. He truly had changed and wasn't caged anymore. She could get used to this. "Really?"

"Yeah." Dolph said kissing her hand that was still intertwined with his.

"Are you ready for Wrestlemania?" She asked randomly changing the subject.

"Kind of. Going into a Wrestlemania match is different than just a Raw or Smackdown or any other PPV. This is serious. This is your one chance out of every year to prove that you're the best at what you do. It's your chance to shine." Dolph said staring at their hands.

"I _know _you and Big E are going to win." AJ said with confidence.

"Not just that. I could cash in my contract at Wrestlemania. I could leave the World Heavyweight Champion. This could be the start of that small push that I've always needed to be the face of the company. I'm right there."

"I know you can do that too Ziggy Bear."

Dolph laughed at the nickname she had for him and pulled her close. Throughout this whole morning they hadn't let go of each other's hand, and that's how it would always be. Her and him, facing the world. Forever and always.


End file.
